Erdogan stresses from the affected area that Turkey “has mobilized all its means” in the face of this “great disaster”
The death toll from the earthquakes registered on Monday in southern Turkey, near the border with Syria, has risen to more than 11,100, according to balances published to date, which include more than 8,500 deaths on Turkish territory.
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has affirmed from the province of Kahramanmaras, epicenter of the earthquakes, that so far 8,574 deaths have been confirmed due to what he has described as “a great disaster”.
The Turkish president stressed during his visit to the area affected by the earthquakes that there are also 49,133 injured, while 6,444 buildings have been destroyed. “We have mobilized all our means. The State is working together with the authorities, with all its means,” he stressed.
The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), under the Turkish Ministry of the Interior, has indicated that “after the first earthquake, another 648 have been registered, the largest being a magnitude 7.6 with an epicenter in Elbistan”, before to confirm that more than 96,600 agents, workers from non-governmental organizations, search and rescue teams and volunteers are deployed in the affected areas. Turkey has also created an air bridge for the transfer of personnel and materials from Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
In this context, the Government has created a Crisis Management Center in the Ministry of Defense to “confront this great disaster”, in order to transport the personnel and the rescue team through an air aid bridge.
The Turkish president declared on Tuesday a state of emergency for three months in the ten provinces affected by the earthquakes. “We are facing one of the biggest disasters not only in the history of the Republic, but also of the region and the world,” he said.
For its part, the earthquake has left 1,262 dead and 2,285 injured in areas of Syria controlled by the authorities, according to data from the Syrian Ministry of Health collected by the Syrian state news agency, SANA. These data correspond to the provinces of Aleppo, Hama, Latakia, Tartus and the areas of Idlib in the hands of government forces.
“We are in a race against time and working with the maximum energy available and with the cooperation of all parties,” reads a statement from the Syrian Ministry of Health, which indicates that the country’s Executive has reviewed the emergency measures that govern the situation.
The Syrian Prime Minister, Husein Arnus, has moved this Wednesday to the province of Latakia (west) to supervise the search and rescue work in the provincial capital, the homonymous Latakia. There he has received information from the local authorities about the work in progress and has met with several residents in the Raml al-Shamali neighborhood, according to the Syrian state news agency, SANA.
To the Syrian government figures we must add more than 1,280 deaths and 2,600 wounded in the areas controlled by the rebels in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo (northwest), according to what the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the ‘white helmets’, has said. through his Twitter account, where he insisted that “the balance is expected to increase significantly, since hundreds of families remain trapped under the rubble more than 50 hours after the earthquake.” Finally, they have indicated that more than 360 buildings have been completely destroyed, while more than a thousand are “severely destroyed.”
