It appears Turkey is ill equipped to handle the catastrophe …..
Syria has appealed to the EU for help……
Two days after a devastating earthquake killed more than 11,600 people in Turkey and Syria and left many more injured and homeless, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey made his first visit to the disaster-stricken zone on Wednesday to tell his people how much his government had done to help and how much more aid was on the way.
“My citizens, my people have always been patient,” Mr. Erdogan said. “I am certain that my nation will show patience again.”
But the question for Mr. Erdogan was when that patience would run out. In towns and cities struck by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, many residents have waited in vain for government aid to help them dig out loved ones buried in the rubble, find secure lodging to protect them from the winter chill and obtain food.
Of course, no government can predict when, where and with what ferocity an earthquake will strike, and workers from Turkey’s national emergency response agency have been on the ground in some affected areas. In other places, the local authorities have used their limited means to contribute to rescue and relief efforts.
But the longer the distress lasts, the more Turkey is likely to expect from Mr. Erdogan, the country’s paramount politician for 20 years, who has sometimes portrayed himself as a father figure who understands the problems of common people.
Criticism of his government’s disaster response could weigh down his quest for re-election in critical elections that are expected to be held in May. He already faces headwinds because of high inflation and economic stress that economists say are largely of his making. The political opposition, which seeks to unseat Mr. Erdogan, has already seized on the issue….
Turkey/Syria Earthquake Update…..
The combined death toll climbed above 20,000 on Thursday, with rescuers racing against time to find survivors in the frigid cold.
Rescue efforts in Syria have been hampered by the effects of years of a war that divided the country into areas of government and opposition control and ravaged the health-care system. The United Nations said damage to delivery routes from the quakes has delayed aid to the rebel enclave in Syria’s northwest, where millions of people are displaced and many live in camps.
As foreign rescuers arrive, Turkish earthquake survivors scramble for aid
Hope of finding more people in the wreckage is dimming, and survivors and opposition politicians in Turkey have expressed frustration at the disaster response to Monday’s quakes. Freezing temperatures have lengthened the odds, even as international rescue teams arrive in Turkey with equipment and rescue dogs to detect the scent of humans beneath the wreckage. But in both Turkey and rebel-held areas of Syria, rescuers continued to pull survivors including young children out of the rubble, alive, in a race against time…
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Afghans rush for airport on rumors of aid flights to Turkey
In a startling echo of the chaotic scenes that followed the Taliban takeover 18 months ago, several thousand Afghans rushed toward the airport in the capital late Wednesday after rumors spread that planes were taking volunteers to Turkey to help with earthquake relief.
The stampede erupted spontaneously and videos showed swarms of men — all in street clothes and without baggage of any kind — shouting and shoving in the dark as they run along the boulevard lined with elaborate wedding halls that leads to the airport. They were stopped by airport security forces, who fired into the air and reportedly left several people injured.
The rush toward the airport appears to reflect the increasing desperation of daily life in Afghanistan where a severe economic crisis has left people seeking to leave by any means possible — even aid flights to disaster zones….
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