2023 Turkey-Syria Earthquake
2023 Turkey-Syria Earthquake
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck on February 6 in southern Turkey, close to Syria's northern border. A magnitude 7.5 earthquake, located about 59 miles (95 kilometers) to the southwest, was felt nine hours after this one. Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Organization reported that as of February 18, there had been at least 5,700 aftershocks (AFAD). A 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey on February 20 leaving 213 people wounded. The Feb. 6 earthquake, which was as intense as the one in 1939, the most powerful one ever recorded there, was the most damaging to strike Turkey in more than 20 years.
The original earthquake was located close to Gaziantep, located in south-central Turkey, and is home to thousands of Syrian refugees and several humanitarian relief agencies.
Via AFAD's coordination and collaboration with the Turkish Red Crescent, the Turkish government is taking the lead in the response there. An international aid request was made after level-4 emergency status was announced by state authorities. In 10 of the nation's provinces, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proclaimed a three-month state of emergency. International relief demands were quickly met by rescue teams and humanitarian offers from governments all over the world. The United Nations refers to Turkey's home nation as Türkiye in English (UN).
The complicated humanitarian crisis that is currently affecting Syria is one of the worst in the world, and the earthquake will only make things worse and expose more vulnerabilities. The fact that the government does not fully control Syria's northwest, which was the region most severely affected by the earthquake, presents one challenge to supplying relief fast. In contrast to Damascus, where help is managed within the remainder of government-controlled Syria, the UN's coordinated assistance to Syria's northwest is sent over the border from Turkey.
4.1 million people in northwest Syria, the bulk of them women and children, rely on humanitarian aid. Although other nations have volunteered to assist Turkey, and the nation has crisis management systems to help the response, delivering relief to impacted Syrians is probably going to be more challenging given that the nation is not governed by a single entity.
On Feb. 12, Martin Griffiths, the UN’s top aid official, said, “We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria. They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived.” The UN says it is scaling up its cross-border aid operation.
Over 200 trucks carrying supplies have been dispatched by the UN through the Bab Al-Hawa and Bab Al-Salam border gates as of February 19. Local partners continue to distribute more goods locally. According to a REACH rapid assessment involving 604 communities in northwest Syria, winterization, shelter, and multi-purpose cash support were cited as the top priority.
Following the earthquake, a dam in northwest Syria collapsed, resulting in the Orontes River overflowing. People were forced to leave the village of Al-Tlul in the Idlib governorate as a result of the flood. Some 7,000 people were forced to flee, while 1,000 homes in the surrounding villages of Hardana, Delbiya, Jakara, and Hamziyeh were submerged in water. The flood is an illustration of an indirect and cascading catastrophe impact that aid workers must take into consideration as they offer aid and start the recovery process while attempting to reduce danger. Partially returning is the displaced populace caused by the dam failure and following floods. But because the dam can't be fixed right away, there's a chance that people will become sick from drinking the water.
Among the most harmful natural disasters are earthquakes. Because of the two major fault zones in Turkey, the area is among the most seismically active in the globe. When natural hazards interact with a human culture or community, disaster studies refer to this interaction as vulnerability.
Vulnerability in this catastrophe can be seen in poorly built structures that do not adhere to contemporary earthquake building standards, in the thousands of Syrians who have fled to Turkey or who are internally displaced in northwest Syria and live in slums, in the destruction of infrastructure within Syria as a result of years of war and aerial bombings, in the ongoing complex humanitarian crisis caused by conflict, and in the cholera outbreak.
Because of these factors, the earthquake that destroyed Syria and Turkey cannot be referred to be a "natural catastrophe." Natural disasters like earthquakes are unavoidable, but their effects on civilization are not. Due to their own experience, those who were impacted by the crisis are instantly aware of this. One shop owner in southern Turkey said, “We knew that we lived in an earthquake zone. It’s not fate. People are to blame for making weak buildings.”
By advocating for safe building construction, supporting risk communication campaigns, investing over the long term to ensure a full recovery that incorporates risk reduction, and bolstering preparedness and resilience, funders can help lessen the effects of this disaster as it develops as well as additional disasters in Turkey and Syria.
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