Turkey Earthquake: Death Toll Surpasses 7K
Facts
- One of the largest earthquakes to hit the region in nearly a century — with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale — has killed thousands of people, destroyed infrastructure, and leveled thousands of buildings after striking early Monday morning in southern Turkey and northern Syria.
- A second earthquake aftershock, registering a magnitude of 7.7 on the Richter scale, in the same location near Gaziantep was also reported Monday afternoon — less than 12 hours after the initial quake — with several more aftershocks since reported. With the numbers in flux and rising, total fatalities were estimated at over 7K as of Tuesday night local time.
- Rescuers were desperately searching through the rubble to find survivors in both nations. The initial earthquake is believed to be the strongest to strike Turkey since 1939.
- The areas of Syria most affected by the earthquakes are regions still mired by the country's ongoing civil war in which there is a massive population of internally displaced Syrians living in refugee camps along the Turkish border.
- Countries around the world have pledged to support the disaster with international assistance. The World Health Organization warned of up to an eight-fold increase in casualty numbers based on other historical earthquake catastrophes.
- In addition to the earthquake, which was felt in neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Egypt, Cyprus, and even in Denmark, a snowstorm has aggravated the situation by covering major roads and making three major airports in the area inoperable.
Sources: CNN, Guardian, Al Jazeera, BBC News, and CBS.
Narratives
- Narrative A, as provided by CNBC. This is the worst crisis to hit southern Turkey and northern Syria since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011. Besides the fact that this region is inundated with refugees, the earthquake comes in the middle of winter which is only compounding the suffering of those who were already suffering. The global community must step up quickly to help the people of Turkey and Syria.
- Narrative B, as provided by Al Jazeera. Sadly, many impacts of this earthquake could have been lessened if only Turkish authorities had dealt seriously with supervising urban development in quake-prone areas, enforcing the mandatory earthquake-resistant design codes to buildings its legislation approved in 2000. There are two major fault lines along the Anatolian Plate, and earthquake mitigation is vital given the likelihood of catastrophic tremors.
- Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Xinhua. Even as Syria has descended into even lower pits of hell following the earthquake, the US and its Western allies still insist on sanctioning the country, which is making it impossible for aid to be distributed and relief efforts to be undertaken. All routes from Turkey into the country's north have been destroyed, making it even more necessary for Western governments to work directly with the Syrian state to help alleviate this crisis. The West must lift these cruel sanctions.
- Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Al Jazeera. The US should not and will not work with a government that has killed hundreds of thousands of its own people with barrel bombs, starvation sieges, and chemical weapons. US sanctions on Syria have a very minor effect on aid delivery, as such areas are excluded from the sanctions which largely target individuals and companies. The US will do everything it can via the NGOs with which it has worked for years to provide Syrians with aid, but it will not assist Bashar al-Assad, Syria's dictator, after he destroyed his own country.