The unfortunate earthquake in the border regions of Turkiye and Syria has passed over 25,000 deaths while casualties are continuously increasing and the scope of the recovery of the survivors still buried beneath the rubble of the buildings diminishes every passing movement. According to the details, search and rescue operations are continuing and thousands of volunteers and military men are searching for signs of life beneath the wreckage of destroyed buildings and recovering dead bodies for an early funeral in quake-hit regions in neighboring nations.
The 7.8 magnitudes deadly earthquake brought tremendous destruction and misery in Turkiye and Northwestern Syria causing thousands of deaths, and injuries and the destruction of buildings, road infrastructure, and mass displacement in tremor-hit regions. The earthquake was one of the worst and largest disasters in Turkiye’s history since 1939. The volume of destruction is so vast that 10 Turkish provinces suffered tremendous losses, 6444 buildings completely collapsed and thousands received partial damage.
The reports suggest that the humanitarian conditions are very dire in conflict-ridden Syria where search and rescue teams and relief workers are unable to reach quake-hit areas un rebels control. The earthquake completely erased 2000 buildings while damaging over 5000 constructions in violence-hit Aleppo and Jableh cities in Northwestern Syria. According to an estimate, over 5.3 million people became homeless due to the devastating earthquake. who need shelter, warm clothes, meals, and healthcare on an urgent basis, while nearly 15 million Syrians were already in need of humanitarian assistance prior to the recent earth shake. The UN Secretary-General and his team are working to get safe passage of relief goods to Syrian rebel-held territory through coordination with the Bashir-al-Asad regime along with through the Turkish-Syria border crossings.
The convulsion has brought sudden and unimaginable losses to the victim nations while the freezing winter made up another challenge for survivors as well as for rescuers. The enormous calamity has attracted an encouraging and unified response from the global community. Presently, over eight thousand search and rescue workers from 70 countries across the world are busy around the clock in search and relief operations in Turkey, while UN relief goods and humanitarian assistance from Arab Nations had been started reaching Syria’s earthquake-hit regions. Erdogan’s government has announced a 3-month emergency in 10 disaster-hit provinces to effectively mitigate the losses. The world has expressed solidarity with earthquake victims in Turkiye and Syria while donor nations and aid agencies are rushing to deploy their personnel and send their relief assistance to crisis-hit nations.
At the time, the exact estimate of the human and economic losses brought up by the earthquake in Turkiye and Syria is not possible, however, the cataclysm was horrific and the volume of destruction is unbelievable. After the search and rescue operation accomplishes, the colossal tasks of reconstruction and rehabilitation would begin, which will last for years and need billions of dollars in investment. Ankara has witnessed a drastic economic downturn and faces serious financial challenges amid the global energy crisis while Syria has been embattled with domestic violence and political unrest over the past decades. Thus, both nations need continuous financial and technical support from the international community to tackle the gigantic challenges in the post-earthquake period to successfully rehabilitate their earthquake victims. Hopefully, the global community will uphold its moral duty by keeping the same pace of cooperation with quake-hit nations in the future.
