The death toll from the violent earthquake that occurred on February 6 in Turkey and Syria stands at 35,224, according to the latest official figures, released on Monday February 13. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed 31,643 people in southern Turkey, the government’s disaster management agency AFAD said on Monday, while authorities counted 3,581 dead in Syria. The United Nations (UN) said on Sunday that the global death toll could still “double”.
Rescuers miraculously extracted new survivors from the rubble in southern Turkey. These rescues are unexpected because they occurred well beyond the crucial period of seventy-two hours after the disaster. During the night from Sunday to Monday, seven people were rescued alive in Turkey, according to the press, including a 3-year-old child in Kahramanmaras and a 60-year-old woman in Besni. Another, 40, was also rescued after 170 hours in Gaziantep.
In Syria, the Syrian president has agreed to open two new cross-border crossing points between Turkey and the north-west of the country for three months, in order to deliver humanitarian aid to the victims of the earthquake, announced Monday evening the secretary UN general.
“I welcome Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s decision today to open the two crossings of Bab Al-Salamah and Al-Rai between Turkey and northwestern Syria for an initial period of three months,” Antonio Guterres said in a statement. The news was also welcomed by Washington. “If the regime is serious about this, if the regime is willing to walk the talk, then it would be good for the Syrian people,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. American.
The Syrian president made the announcement to UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, whom he met earlier in the day in Damascus. The latter transmitted the news to the Security Council meeting on Monday afternoon to discuss the humanitarian situation in Syria.
“Until now, we have failed the people of northwestern Syria,” Mr. Griffiths admitted after his visit to the disaster area last weekend. “They rightly feel abandoned” and it is necessary “to correct this failure as soon as possible”, had judged the diplomat.
According to an official of the Syrian Ministry of Transport, Suleiman Khalil, sixty-two planes loaded with aid have so far landed in Syria. More are expected in the hours and days to come, particularly from Saudi Arabia.
A total of 34,717 people are still working to search for survivors in affected areas in southern Turkey. According to Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay, who spoke to the local press at AFAD premises, some 1.2 million people have been housed in student residences and 400,000 evacuated from the region.
In Antakya, the Antioch of Greek antiquity, after the first three or four days of abandonment, relief is now organized. Basic toilets, without water, have been installed, to the great relief of the survivors. The telephone network has been restored in several districts. In Kahramanmaras, at the epicenter of the earthquake, a strong police and military presence is now visible. Thirty thousand tents have been erected, while 48,000 people are accommodated in schools and 11,500 in sports halls, according to Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.
The holding of presidential and legislative elections in May seems uncertain. The earthquake has already forced the opposition alliance to postpone announcing the name of its candidate. This should have taken place on Monday. For experts, elections in May seem unlikely. They plan to take place in June, the last possible date if the Turkish Constitution is respected, because their adjournment is theoretically only possible in the event of war, they recall.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hasn’t said a word since the disaster about the polls scheduled for May 14, but within his AKP party and opposition parties speculation goes good progress on their possible adjournment. The earthquake “will be a game-changer not only for the government but also for the opposition”, judge Berk Esen, from Sabanci University in Istanbul.
Before the earthquake, many already doubted the ability of the opposition, largely united in a National Alliance bringing together six parties, to announce its common candidate on Monday. Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the largest opposition party, intends to run against Mr. Erdogan, but one of the main figures of the alliance, Meral Aksener, the founder of the Good Party , a nationalist and secular party, opposed his candidacy according to some observers. “The opposition was already in a very delicate position” because divided on the personality capable of challenging Mr. Erdogan, in power since 2003, recalls Mr. Esen.
At 74, Mr. Kiliçdaroglu does not appear in the polls as the best placed to beat the outgoing head of state, compared in particular to the CHP mayors of the capital Ankara, Mansur Yavas, and Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu.
