Northwest Turkey hit by a magnitude 5.4 earthquake

[Anthea]

More than 40,000 known dead but numbers expected to rise

Thousands injured, many seriously

Millions homeless

4.1 mag quake 12 km from Aşağı Karafakılı, Hatay
UTC time: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 00:06 AM
GMT: Wednesday, 15 February 2023 at 00:06 GMT

I repeat my previous warning:

Stay away from buildings

Hoping for more news soon

[Anthea]

West Killing Trapped Syrians

Humanitarian issues should in theory never be politicized, both the health and safety of those innocents who suffer through natural disasters should not be placed in the firing line of political feuds

Western sanctions not only set up Syria for a double-disaster in robbing the country of the ability to deal with the horrifying 7.8 magnitude earthquake, but continues to ensure that Syrian civilians die unnecessarily.

All the while the West pretends to be acting on behalf of a humanitarian impulse in Turkiye, one that clearly doesn’t extend outside the borders of its NATO ally, despite temporary amendments to the sanctions.

Humanitarian issues should in theory never be politicized, both the health and safety of those innocents who suffer through natural disasters should not be placed in the firing line of political feuds.

Serving as a telling indicator of its character is the commonly themed language in Western nations, including rhetoric of self idealization, a somewhat consistent theme throughout the history of empire. However, in the case of what is today known as “the West”; that is to say Western Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and “Israel”, we see something quite different.

The West is defined as the “civilized world”, “the free world”, or as the European Union’s foreign secretary Joseph Borrell puts it, “the garden”. The most powerful player in the “civilized world” is the United States of America, hence when its new President is crowned, they are given the title of “the leader of the free world”.

When looking at the devastation caused across southern Turkiye and northern Syria, we must keep these concepts of the West’s self image in mind, because they provide key context to the blatant discrimination against Syrian civilians who were victimized by the recent earthquake.

For years experts at the United Nations have been sounding the alarm-bells about the humanitarian repercussions of the West’s sanctions, dating back to 2020, just after the imposition of the US Trump administration's “Caesar Act” sanctions against Syria.

Last year, UN Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures and human rights, Alena Douhan, called on the West to immediately drop its sanctions, explaining that “with more than half of the vital infrastructure either completely destroyed or severely damaged, the imposition of unilateral sanctions on key economic sectors, including oil, gas, electricity, trade, construction, and engineering have quashed national income, and undermine efforts towards economic recovery and reconstruction.”

The statement issued by UN expert, Alena Douhan, clearly tied the spread of largely preventable diseases inside Syria - the most worrying of which is currently the country’s cholera epidemic - to the sanctions restrictions on the Syrian government's ability to refurbish and re-establish clean water systems.

Furthermore, the sanctions directly target reconstruction inside Syria, which also has an effect on the ability of Syrian provinces to refurbish buildings and hence almost certainly played a role in the scale of the destruction inside government held areas of northern Syria.

Then we have the sanctions effect on the electrical supply, which is only capable of providing Syrians with a few hours of electricity per day, in addition to this there is a lack of fuel, meaning that in these times transporting aid to those in need is also hindered. Syrian civilians who were made homeless due to the earthquake are also having to put up with subzero temperatures at night time, which took its own toll.

Knowing all of this, in addition to the West understanding that despite their sanctions not technically preventing aid from being delivered, in reality, the sanctions directly impacted aid transfer. There has only been one border crossing into Syria which has received the UN mandate to be used.

That border crossing zone is known as Bab al-Hawa and leads directly into territory that is occupied by Turkey and below it the terrorist organization known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, well known for its affiliations with al-Qaeda.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) pointed out, in January of 2022, a “lack of sufficient safeguards in procurement practices by UN agencies providing aid in Syria has resulted in a serious risk of financing abusive entities”, further calling into question the efficacy of aid transfer.

The Bab al-Hawa crossing was also damaged by the earthquake and was effectively blocked off from receiving any aid for the first three days after the natural disaster struck

The US military, along with its proxy force in north eastern Syria, also happens to be illegally occupying a third of the country’s territory and included in that territory are Syria’s oil and gas rich ‘al-Omar fields’, in addition to the nations most fertile agricultural lands.

The crisis is deepened by the fact that Syria was already in crisis, that its medical sector was already overburdened and was so far undermined, as a result of Western sanctions, that there was no way for it to stand up to properly deal with the current crisis.

The technical equipment needed to rescue potential survivors under the rubble was also either in low stock, or not allowed into the country, compounding problems further.

Then we have the open calls from the Syrian government to the European Union, requesting help in its time of need, which was completely shunned at first. This, along with the US government, that occupies Syrian land illegally and sanctions Syria, was quick to announce that it would not even contact Damascus.

It must be made clear, the West not only snubbed Syria and has proven that it is prepared to ignore Syrian suffering, the West was actively letting Syrians die even after the government reached out for help.

What has been the reaction of the Western media to this blatant disregard for Syrian lives and the criminal anti-humanitarian practices of their governments? Part of it was for the darling of the West’s “freedom of speech” media, Charlie Hebdo, to publish a piece in which they openly mocked those killed in the earthquake, joking about not needing tanks to do the job that the natural disaster did.

In the Western world, media outlets and pundits who openly spew hatred towards the Muslim and Arab world are defended for their “freedom of speech”, whilst Russian and Iranian media are banned in the name of security, so too is Julian Assange held in a cell to rot for exposing war crimes committed by Western governments.

All of this has to be traced back to the Western supremacist way of thinking, the ideology that preaches about humanitarianism, freedom of speech and a number of other virtues which Westerners will claim to hold true, but on the other hand refuses to apply any of these moral standards to outsiders.

This is because for those who are indoctrinated into the mindset of Western liberalism, anyone who violates the supremacist self-lauding code, challenging the “us over them” mentality, they constitute the outsider. This is why allowing the West to describe itself as the “free world” and/or “civilized world” must be challenged, because according to this framing, it instantly creates the opposite to the West as being barbaric, oppressive and uncivilized, which are the depictions created of all the Western governments enemies.

Although the Western regimes will never openly admit to being racist supremacists, this is what inherently underpins their worldview and allows for them to dictate who should be considered as worthy of being granted aid, who can resist tyranny and establish independent nations.

The deaths of Syrians who could have been saved by the aid of the West are all on the hands of the complicit regimes that claim to be “free” and “civilized”, but instead clearly have very different definitions for these terms than we will find in any dictionary.

Despite temporary amendments to the US sanctions on Syria, which will somewhat ease the humanitarian crisis, they are simply not enough and constitute a too little too late approach. If these sanctions would have been lifted after repeated calls from experts at the UN to do so, Damascus could have been in a position to save many more lives.

The sanctions should have been lifted from the moment the earthquake struck, but Washington decided to play politics for days whilst people suffocated and froze to death under the rubble. What this horrific natural disaster has served to do, is exemplify the effects on the civilian population who suffer under them, just as we saw with the hundreds of thousands killed by US sanctions on Iraq after the first Gulf war.

Getting aid to Syria is still an issue and the amendment to the sanctions is a start, but the shunning of the Syrian people continues nonetheless, whilst there are no calls for Western accountability in exacerbating the crisis, due to the effects of the sanctions that set Syria up for a double-tragedy.

https://english.almayadeen.net/articles ... the-rubble

[Anthea]

Woman and girl pulled from rubble

A 77-year-old woman pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building 212 hours after two huge earthquakes devastated Turkey and Syria was among the miracle rescues made yesterday

Fatma Gungor was pulled out from under the rubble of a collapsed building in Adiyaman province, Turkey after being trapped for nearly nine days.

And Syrian teenager Seher Ghanam, 15, was one of the at least nine people to be found alive Turkey's Hatay province yesterday – 209 hours on from the disaster

She was photographed pointing her fingers to the sky as she was carried away by emergency service workers in a stretcher, wrapped in a foil blanket and wearing an oxygen mask, before she was then loaded into an ambulance for treatment.

Seher was rescued shortly after her father Faez Ghanam was freed from the same building.

Fatma Gungor, 77, is rescued by the personnel from under rubble of a collapsed building, 212 after the earthquakes hit Adiyaman, Turkey

Others rescued from the devastation in Turkey included two young brothers pulled from the ruins of a block in Kahramanmaras province after being trapped for 198 hours.

State-owned Anadolu news agency identified them as Muhammed Enes Yeninar, 17, and Abdulbaki Yeninar, 21.

Dozens of rescuers were working at the site and Turkish soldiers hugged and clapped after the pair were found.

There was then a call for quiet in the search for further survivors. The brothers were taken to hospital but their condition was unclear last night.

Another rescue saved the life of teacher Emine Akgul, 26, was freed from a collapsed apartment building in Antakya - the capital of Hatay - by a mining search and rescue team, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency reported..

Rescuers pulled her out 201 hours after the earthquakes hit and pictures show a Volvo digger was used in the operation.

Link to Article - Photos:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... scues.html

[Anthea]

Father and daughter saved

A father and his 15-year-old daughter have been rescued in Turkey having spent nearly nine days trapped under rubble after last week's catastrophic earthquake

Rescuers also freed a 42-year-old woman from the wreckage of a building in the southern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras, almost 222 hours after the quake, while a 77-year-old woman was found and saved overnight, 212 hours after.

TV footage broadcast in the country showed the rescues. The miraculous survivors were seen being carried away from their ruined homes on stretchers.

Such scenes are becoming increasingly rare in Turkey and Syria, but officials have said they are determined to keep going until every trapped survivor is rescued.

Meanwhile, the combined death toll in the region has climbed over 41,000, and many survivors are enduring near-freezing winter temperatures, having been left homeless by the devastation in cities in both countries.

Rescues continue eight days after tragic Turkey & Syria earthquakes

Link to Article - Photo - Videos:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... quake.html

[Anthea]

Erdogan: Search to continue

Erdogan: The search will continue until the last person is removed from the ruins We have decided to continue search and rescue operations until the last person is removed from under the collapsed buildings in the earthquake area

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this during his speech in Adiyaman. "At the same time, we will rebuild the collapsed buildings within 1 year and hand them over to their owners,"

We have decided to continue search and rescue operations until the last person is removed from under the collapsed buildings in the earthquake area.

[Anthea]

Sadly minor earthquakes continue

4.6 mag quake 1 km from Göksun, Kahramanmaraş
UTC time: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 07:36 AM
GMT: Wednesday, 15 February 2023 at 07:36 GMT

4.2 mag quake 21 km from Göksun, Kahramanmaraş
UTC time: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 06:25 AM
GMT: Wednesday, 15 February 2023 at 06:25 GMT

While normally earthquakes of this size are unlikely to cause much, if any, damage in themselves, following on from some 200 similar such quakes, they are strong enough to bring down already weakened buildings

Authorities are advising people to take shelter in buildings still standing, I believe this is dangerous advice being given to desperate people

NOBODY KNOWS IF THERE WILL BE FURTHER LARGE QUAKES

[Anthea]

UN wants billions for Ukrainian NAZIS

Only millions for quake-hit Syria

Despite the huge number of affected people and infrastructure, the UN launches only a $397 million humanitarian appeal to aid Syria.

The United Nations on Wednesday said $5.6 billion was needed to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine and to the millions who have fled the country after the start of the war (which Kiev started when it broke international law by attacking Donbass for 9 years), a day after it announced a $397 million humanitarian appeal to aid quake-hit Syria.

Ukraine is NOT a problem, fighting will STOP INSTANTLY Kiev ends it's illegal attacks on Donbass

"Continued international support and solidarity is needed, until refugees are able to return to their homes in safety and dignity, which must also remain a priority."

(return to their homes in safety and dignity) what about the safety and dignity of the Yazidis???

Only $397 million appeal to aid Syria

On the other hand, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the launch of a mere $397 million humanitarian appeal to aid Syria in the wake of the devastating earthquake, which has so far resulted in around 6,000 deaths.

"The Syria effort brings together the entire UN system and humanitarian partners and will help secure desperately needed, life-saving relief for nearly 5 million Syrians – including shelter, healthcare, food and protection," Guterres told reporters as the appeal was launched.

According to the UN, the Flash Appeal will ensure assistance to the people with the most urgent humanitarian needs, covering an initial period of three months, until May.

“We all know that lifesaving aid has not been getting in at the speed and scale needed. The scale of this disaster is one of the worst in recent memory,” the UN Secretary-General highlighted.

"I have an urgent message to the international community: The human suffering from this epic natural disaster should not be made even worse by manmade obstacles — access, funding, supplies," Guterres stressed, urging UN member states "and others to fully fund this effort without delay and help the millions of children, women and men whose lives have been upended by this generational disaster."

"This is a moment for unity, for common humanity and concerted action," he concluded.

According to the UN, 8.8 million people have been affected by the earthquake and its aftershocks in Syria. More than 4.2 million people have been affected by the earthquake in Aleppo, while 3 million people have been affected in Idlib, the UN noted, adding that more than 7,400 buildings have been entirely or partially destroyed.

The UN also estimated that up to 5.3 million people in Syria may have been made homeless as a result of the earthquake and its aftershocks.

While Syria clearly needs more than $394 million to rise from the aftermath of the earthquake, it remains dependent on aid sent from friendly countries.

UN admits: 'We have failed the people in northwest Syria'

This comes as the UN pointed out on Sunday that the international community has so far abandoned Syrians as they struggle to secure basic needs and aid to respond to the devastating earthquake that struck the country.

Griffiths said although a convoy of supplies was delivered by the organization to northwest Syria through Turkey, the effort was not enough as millions more have been impacted by the catastrophe.

"We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria. They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn't arrived," he tweeted.

"My duty and our obligation is to correct this failure as fast as we can. That’s my focus now," Griffiths indicated.

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... -quake-hit

I AM FURIOUS just thought I would say

[Anthea]

Death toll passes 40,000

Nine survivors were rescued from the rubble in Turkey on Tuesday, more than a week after a massive earthquake struck, as the focus of the aid effort shifted to helping people now struggling without shelter or enough food in the bitter cold

The disaster, with a combined death toll in Turkey and neighbouring Syria exceeding 41,000, has ravaged cities in both countries, leaving many survivors homeless in near-freezing winter temperatures.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has acknowledged problems in the initial response to the 7.8 magnitude quake that struck early on Feb. 6 but has said the situation is now under control.

"We are facing one of the greatest natural disasters not only in our country but also in the history of humanity," Erdogan said in a televised speech in Ankara.

Those rescued on Tuesday included two brothers, aged 17 and 21, pulled from an apartment block in Kahramanmaras province, and a Syrian man and young woman in a leopard-print headscarf in Antakya rescued after over 200 hours in the rubble. There could be further people alive still to find, said one rescuer.

U.N. authorities have said the rescue phase is coming to a close, with the focus turning to shelter, food and schooling.

"People are suffering a lot. We applied to receive a tent, aid, or something, but up to now we didn't receive anything," said Hassan Saimoua, a refugee staying with his family in a playground in Turkey's southeastern city of Gaziantep.

Saimoua and other Syrians who had found refuge in Gaziantep from the war at home but were made homeless by the quake used plastic sheets, blankets and cardboard to erect makeshift tents in the playground.

"The needs are huge, increasing by the hour," said Hans Henri P. Kluge, the World Health Organization's director for Europe. "Some 26 million people across both countries need humanitarian assistance."

"There are also growing concerns over emerging health issues linked to the cold weather, hygiene and sanitation, and the spread of infectious diseases - with vulnerable people especially at risk."

At a Turkish field hospital in the southern city of Iskenderun, Indian Army Major Beena Tiwari said patients had initially arrived with physical injuries but that was changing.

Aftermath of the deadly earthquake

"Now more of the patients are coming with post-traumatic stress disorder, following all the shock that they've gone through during the earthquake," she said.

Families in both Turkey and Syria said they and their children were dealing with the psychological aftermath of the quake.

"Whenever he forgets, he hears a loud sound and then remembers again," Hassan Moaz said of his 9-year-old in Aleppo, Syria. "When he's sleeping at night and hears a sound, he wakes up and tells me: 'Dad, aftershock!'"

A first convoy of U.N. aid entered rebel-held northwest Syria from Turkey via the newly-opened Bab al-Salam crossing.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad agreed on Monday to allow U.N. aid to enter from Turkey via two more border crossings, marking a shift for Damascus which has long opposed cross-border aid deliveries to the rebel enclave.

Nearly 9 million people in Syria were affected by the earthquake, the United Nations said, as it launched a $400 million funding appeal.

SURVIVORS' EXODUS

The search for survivors was about to end in the north west of Syria, said the head of the White Helmets main rescue group, Raed al Saleh.

Russia also said it was wrapping up its search and rescue work in Turkey and Syria and preparing to withdraw.

The Turkish toll was 35,3418 killed, Erdogan said. More than 5,814 have died in Syria, according to a Reuters tally of reports from Syrian state media and a U.N. agency.

Survivors joined a mass exodus from earthquake-hit zones, leaving their homes and unsure if they can ever come back.

"It's very hard ... We will start from zero, without belongings, without a job," said 22-year-old Hamza Bekry, a Syrian originally from Idlib who has lived in Antakya, in southern Turkey, for 12 years but prepared to follow his family to Isparta in southern Turkey.

More than 2.2 million people have left the worst-hit areas already, Erdogan said, and hundreds of thousands of buildings have become uninhabitable.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-ea ... 023-02-12/

[Anthea]

Hopefully this latest aftershock did not cause any more buildings to collapse

4.1 magnitude earthquake 10 km from Göksun, Kahramanmaraş
UTC time: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 22:25 PM
GMT: Wednesday, 15 February 2023 at 22:25 GMT

[Anthea]

Hoping the next aftershocks will be much weaker but not feeling very confident

4.0 magnitude earthquake 22 km from Nurdağı
UTC time: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 23:43 PM
GMT: Wednesday, 15 February 2023 at 23:43 GMT

[Anthea]

NOBODY SAW A PATTERN FORMING

4.7 magnitude earthquake 14 km from Doğanyol, Malatya, Turkey
UTC time: Sunday, January 15, 2023 03:36 AM
GMT: Sunday, 15 January 2023 at 03:36 GMT

4.3 magnitude earthquake 14 km from Tallkalakh, Homs, Syria
UTC time: Saturday, January 21, 2023 13:31 PM
GMT: Saturday, 21 January 2023 at 13:31 GMT

4.3 magnitude earthquake 27 km from Latakia, Latakia, Syria
UTC time: Sunday, January 29, 2023 16:12 PM
GMT: Sunday, 29 January 2023 at 16:12 GMT

4.2 magnitude earthquake 5 km from Bahçe, Adana, Turkey
UTC time: Friday, February 03, 2023 11:05 AM
GMT: Friday, 3 February 2023 at 11:05 GMT

[Anthea]

GIRL FOUND ALIVE AFTER TEN DAYS

Girl, 17, is found alive under rubble TEN DAYS after earthquake struck in Turkey

A 17-year-old girl has been pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed building in southern Turkey an eye-watering 248 hours after a massive earthquake that killed more than 42,000 in Turkey and Syria.

The scarcely believable rescue of Aleyna Olmez transpired in the southern province of Kahramanmaras, which was close to the epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude quake that erupted last Monday and demolished hundreds of square miles of territory.

Experts say that the overwhelming majority of survivors are rescued within 72 hours of the disaster. After three days, the survival rate drops drastically as those buried under mountains of debris succumb to dehydration, asphyxiation or injuries sustained amid the tremor.

But the teenager miraculously endured TEN whole days of being entombed under tonnes of concrete and twisted metal.

Her incredible rescue was conducted in an area described by a British aid volunteer as looking like a 'zombie apocalypse', where a potent stench of death hangs in the air.

17 year-old girl Aleyna Olmez rescued from the rubbles of collapsed Atabey Apartment in Kayabasi neighbourgood 248 hours after a 7.8 magnitude quake demolishe much of southern Turkey and northern Syria

Link to Full Article - Photos -Videos:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... urkey.html

NEVER GIVE UP - NEVER STOP LOOKING

[Anthea]

I sincerely hope that someone other than myself, is watching all these aftershocks

4.3 magnitude earthquake 7 km from Sincik, Adıyaman, Turkey
UTC time: Thursday, February 16, 2023 05:18 AM
GMT: Thursday, 16 February 2023 at 05:18 GMT

4.8 magnitude earthquake 26 km from Yayladağı, Hatay, Turkey
UTC time: Thursday, February 16, 2023 11:16 AM
GMT: Thursday, 16 February 2023 at 11:16 GMT

4.5 magnitude earthquake 14 km from Doğanşehir, Malatya, Turkey
UTC time: Thursday, February 16, 2023 14:45 PM
GMT: Thursday, 16 February 2023 at 14:45 GMT

4.1 magnitude earthquake 5 km from Nurhak, Kahramanmaraş, Turkey
UTC time: Thursday, February 16, 2023 16:38 PM
GMT: Thursday, 16 February 2023 at 16:38 GMT

5.2 magnitude earthquake 19 km from Uzunbağ, Hatay, Turkey
UTC time: Thursday, February 16, 2023 19:47 PM
GMT: Thursday, 16 February 2023 at 19:47 GMT

What will the next one be!?!

[Anthea]

One in ten homes irreparable

The urbanization authority said it is working on a reconstruction plan that will cover 11 provinces, the minister said during a trip to Malatya, one of the affected cities

According to Turkish Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum, one-tenth of the housing in earthquake-ravaged regions of southern Turkey are beyond repair and must be demolished.

"We have inspected 577,689 buildings in the disaster areas, which corresponds to some 2.665 million apartments. Of those, 56,080 buildings collapsed or must be demolished or are severely damaged," Kurum said.

The minister stated during a visit to Malatya, one of the damaged cities, that the ministry is developing a reconstruction plan that would encompass 11 provinces.

Additionally, investigations into architectural negligence contributed to the high number of victims in the country's deadliest earthquake in modern history. Anyone responsible for defective constructions, according to Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag, will face punishment.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake was one of the deadliest natural disasters this century, and according to a report by The New York Times, dozens of countries sent rescue teams to help in the search. Experts warned that the window for finding survivors was closing in the aftermath of the quake.

The death toll from the devastating earthquakes in Turkey has increased to 21,043 people, with over 80,000 others injured.

In a speech on Monday, President Erdogan approximated around 250,000 workers from 71 Turkish regions operating to contain the damage inflicted by the earthquake. He estimated that 2.2 million people have been evacuated and 1.6 million earthquake victims have received temporary shelter from the Turkish government.

More than 250 contractors were arrested in Turkey

Al Mayadeen correspondent in Turkey reported today that more than 250 construction contractors were arrested for interrogation about the causes of the rapid collapse of buildings as a result of the earthquake.

The news about the arrest of contractors and developers of buildings and housing complexes in Turkey did not cease during the past hours while the search and rescue teams continue their efforts in the ten affected provinces following the devastating earthquake.

One of the most prominent of these contractors, Mehmet Yasar Coskun, owner of the Renaissance Residence complex in the southern Hatay province, was arrested by the authorities while he was trying to leave the country for Montenegro, from Sabiha Gokcen Airport in Istanbul.

Turkey's Justice Ministry has ordered prosecutors to file criminal charges against all contractors and officials responsible for the collapse of buildings that failed to meet existing laws introduced after a similarly disastrous earthquake in 1999.

The campaigns carried out by the Turkish authorities against the contractors are continuing, while the data indicate that they will take an upward trend in the coming days, which was indicated by the words of the Turkish Vice President, Fuad Aktay, by saying, “131 people have been identified responsible for the destroyed buildings in 10 provinces.”

https://english.almayadeen.net/news/pol ... ed-irrepar

[Anthea]

4.4 magnitude is NOT particularly strong BUT I think it is the first one in that area

4.4 magnitude earthquake 10 km from Yayladere, Bingöl, Turkey
UTC time: Friday, February 17, 2023 00:35 AM
GMT: Friday, 17 February 2023 at 00:35 GMT