February 13, 2023 Over 36,000 dead from quake in Turkey and Syria

Both Turkey and Syria are grappling with the repercussions of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked the region last Monday, as hopes of finding further survivors dwindles amid freezing temperatures.

The United Nations has recognized failures to support quake victims in Syria, and Turkish police have made more than a dozen arrests in connection with online misinformation “spreading fear and panic amongst citizens.”

Here are the latest headlines:

The death toll from last Monday's earthquake in Turkey and Syria has now topped 36,000.

In Turkey alone, more than 31,000 have died, making the quake one of the deadliest in the country's history.

Here's the disaster in context:

Every time Abdulrahman Al-Dahhan closes his eyes at night, he hears the screams of friends and family in Syria pleading for help.

The voice messages he’s received chronicling their pain make it impossible to sleep, he says. Haunted by their cries, he lies awake tormented by guilt. He worries that each moment he rests, thousands back home in Syria are still buried alive under rubble.

More than 36,000 people have died across Turkey and Syria since a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the region on February 6. Nearly a week later, a lucky few are still being pulled alive from the rubble but hopes of finding additional survivors dwindle amid freezing temperatures.

“It’s destroying me,” Al-Dahhan, 31, told CNN. “When it happened, I was receiving constant voice messages, jumping from number to number on WhatsApp, each one is someone crying, telling me they are seeing people dying around them. I can’t stop hearing them.”

Read the full story here.

European soccer’s governing body UEFA will pay tribute to Turkey and Syria earthquake victims at all Champions League and Europa League matches taking place this week, according to a statement released on Monday. 

A moment of silence before kick-off “will be observed at four UEFA Champions League round of 16 first-leg games, eight UEFA Europa League knockout play-offs first-leg fixtures and eight UEFA Europa Conference League knockout play-offs first-leg matches,” UEFA said. 

“During the pre-match ceremony and the moment of silence, a commemorative banner will be displayed on the field with the message ‘We Are Together With You’ in Turkish and Arabic language(s). The message will also be shown by TV broadcasters and on giant screens in each stadium. The LED boards around the stadiums will remain unlit during the moment of silence as a sign of deepest sympathy and full support to the Turkish and Syrian people,” UEFA added. 

UEFA said they have made an “initial donation of $213,981 (€200,000) to support humanitarian efforts following earthquakes in Turkey and Syria” adding to their statement that “black armbands can be worn at the discretion of the teams and referees.” 

The death toll across Turkey and Syria following Monday’s catastrophic earthquake has reached at least 36,217 according to officials. 

Turkish police have arrested 14 people suspected to have shared disinformation regarding last week's catastrophic earthquake. 

In a statement Monday, Turkish police said that 475 account managers had been identified “as being engaged in sharing provocative content” on social media platforms in relation to the earthquake “with the intention of spreading fear and panic among citizens.”

“Their details have been passed onto the relevant units, and in accordance with instructions issued by the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, 56 individuals have been detained, 14 of whom have been arrested,” the statement said. 

Turkish police said they had also shut down 41 phishing websites and dealt with four social media platform accounts “that demanded money from citizens by using or imitating the names of government institutions.”

Police also identified the addresses of three crypto asset wallets being falsely used to collect earthquake relief. The wallets were “subsequently frozen,” according to the statement. 

Last Wednesday, access to the social media platform Twitter was restricted by Turkish authorities in the wake of the earthquake, before being restored. 

Turkish authorities have carried out a wave of arrests of property developers accused of "negligence" over building collapses due to last week's earthquake, amid growing public anger over the government's response to the disaster.

At least 134 people are being treated as suspects and under investigation regarding the construction of buildings that were destroyed during the earthquake, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said Sunday.

“Three of these suspects were arrested pending trial, seven of them in custody, seven banned from travel," said Bozdag. "Negligence detected, we will do what the law necessitates."

Yasemin Didem Aktas, structural engineer and lecturer at University College London, told CNN that while the earthquake and its aftershocks constituted "a very powerful event that would challenge even code compliant buildings," construction issues did exist. 

"What we are seeing here is definitely telling us that something is wrong in those buildings, and it can be that they weren't designed in code in the first place, or the implementation wasn't designed properly," said Didem Aktas. "We are also seeing in Turkey quite commonly that post occupancy modifications on buildings compromise their safety."

But while the government cracks down on developers, feelings of anger and resentment continue to grow among those affected.

Turkey is no stranger to earthquakes and many feel that the government failed to prepare for another catastrophic event.

However Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has defended his government’s response, admitting to “shortcomings” but stressing that it’s “not possible to be prepared for such a disaster.” 

Germany’s International Search and Rescue team (ISAR) has ended its mission in Turkey’s earthquake-stricken region and is set to return home on Monday, it said in a statement.

“We will not forget the people in the disaster area,” ISAR said in the statement, which added it would travel back to Germany from Kirikhan, the northeastern part of Turkey’s Hatay Province.

“We are now examining which projects we can help with very quickly and sustainably,” it added.

Germany sent 50 recovery experts to Turkey last Tuesday, to locate and rescue victims. The country suspended its rescue and relief operations on Saturday, citing security concerns in the Hatay region, according to a statement issued by the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief.

In a separate statement released on Sunday, ISAR said the team had rescued an 88-year-old woman from “underneath the rubble” of a collapsed home in Kirikhan after hearing a “quiet voice” whilst conducting rescue efforts on the building.

The death toll across Turkey and Syria following Monday’s catastrophic earthquake reached at least 36,217. 

The death toll in Turkey has reached 31,643, Turkish Emergency Coordination Center SAKOM said Monday. 

The confirmed death toll in Syria is 4,574. That number includes more than 3,160 in opposition-held parts of northwestern Syria, according to the health ministry of the Salvation Government governance authority.

The Syrian death toll also includes 1,414 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to state news agency SANA.

This post has been updated with the latest figures.

One of Mexico's beloved rescue dogs, deployed to Turkey to assist in rescue operations there, has died. 

"We deeply regret the loss of our great companion the dog: 'Proteo,'" the Mexican Ministry of National Defense tweeted on Sunday. 

The ministry did not say how the dog had died. 

Proteo was one of 16 canines sent to Turkey from Mexico last week, to assist in search and rescue operations following last week's devastating earthquake.

"The heart of our rescue team is currently flying to Turkey," Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard tweeted on Tuesday.

Mexico, where there are regular earthquakes due to its tectonic setting, is well-known for its highly trained and specialized search and rescue dogs.