February 8, 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake news

The road leading to the only humanitarian aid border crossing between Turkey and Syria is now accessible after it was damaged by Monday’s earthquake, a United Nations official told CNN on Wednesday. 

Muhannad Hadi, the UN's regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, said aid should begin moving by Thursday — but his team is still working out how to move trucks from inside Syria to the Turkish border. 

The Bab al-Hawa crossing is the only humanitarian aid corridor approved by the United Nations between Syria and Turkey.  

Hadi said the UN is also working with its partners in Damascus to set up “cross-line” activity, referring to moving aid from government-controlled areas of the country to areas in northwest Syria that are outside the government’s control. 

He called on all member states to “put the interest of the people first” but stopped short of saying sanctions should be lifted. The Syrian government has called for the United States and the European Union to lift sanctions in the wake of the crisis.

“This earthquake, on top of this crisis, it’s like the perfect storm that nobody ever wished for,” Hadi said. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged shortcomings in quake response and said, "it is not possible to be prepared for such a disaster," during his visit near the epicenter of Monday's earthquake. 

Erdogan pointed out that the difficulty of weather conditions was added to the magnitude and prevalence of the destruction caused by the earthquake, "which was felt in an area of ​​500 kilometers, in which approximately 13.5 million people live."

"No doubt, our job was not easy," Erdogan said and added, "As of now, a total of 21,200 personnel, including soldiers, gendarmes, and police, are working in Hatay."

The Syrian government says it has set up more than 100 shelters equipped with aid supplies for those affected by the earthquake across government-controlled areas, including in the cities of Aleppo, Hama, Homs, Tartus and Latakia, a coastal city which has the highest number of deaths and more than 100 collapsed buildings.  

In Aleppo, one of the cities that have been most affected by the earthquake, 126 shelters have been set up and 52 mosques transformed into centers for people affected by the earthquake, state news agency SANA said. In Latakia, the government says it provided 23 shelters and transformed 20 mosques into aid centers. 

A total of 11 shelters have been set up across Hama, Homs and Tartus, SANA added.

The Assad regime says it is providing the necessary means for hospitals to function in the cities it controls, but are calling for additional medical equipment from donor governments and organizations. 

“We demand immediate and urgent intervention from all organizations to provide all necessary medical assistance,” al-Ghobash said.

Human rights groups have accused the Syrian government in the past of imposing severe restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid across the country to “punish those who express dissent,” Human Rights Watch said.

When asked whether the Assad-led government will allow aid into rebel-controlled territories from Turkey, the Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said that international aid will be distributed only by the Syrian government. 

“The Syrian state is ready to allow aid to enter into all regions, provided that it does not reach terrorist armed groups," Mekdad said.

What's the UN saying about efforts to help Syria: Aid is slowly reaching those in need, but even before the quake, the United Nations said 70% of Syria’s population needed humanitarian assistance.

“This tragedy will have a devastating impact on many vulnerable families who struggle to provide for their loved ones on a daily basis,” the United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim for Syria and the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

The UN and humanitarian partners say they are currently focusing on immediate needs, including food, shelter, non-food items and medicine.

CNN’s Ruba Alhenawi, Raja Razek and Hilary Whiteman contributed to this post.

At least 18 people were detained and five were arrested after "provocative posts" were posted on social media platforms about Turkey's earthquake, according to the Turkish Police Force's tweet on Wednesday. 

The Turkish Police Force tweeted that 202 account managers "who made provocative posts about the earthquake on social media platforms were detected."

"The websites that wanted to abuse our benevolent citizens were closed down," it added.

On Wednesday, network monitoring firm NetBlocks said traffic filtering had been applied at the internet service provider level that was preventing Twitter users from reaching the social media site.  

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned about the provocative actions during his visit to the earthquake region in Kahramanmaras on Wednesday. "I want my friends from the press not to give an opportunity to those who give these provocations an opportunity."

The death toll from the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria has reached at least 11,376, according to authorities.

In Turkey, the death toll has risen to at least 8,574, with nearly 50,000 others reported injured, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised briefing Wednesday, during a visit to disaster areas near the epicenter of Monday's earthquake. 

In Syria, the total number of deaths now stands at 2,802, including 1,540 in rebel-held areas in the northwest, according to the "White Helmets," and 1,262 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, Health Minister Dr. Hassan al-Ghobash announced, according to Syrian state media.  

The total number of injured people in Syria across all affected territories rose to 5,008 [2,258 in government-controlled and 2,750 in the rebel-held area].

Aid agencies and emergency workers say the death toll is likely to increase further with many people still trapped under the rubble, and freezing weather conditions hampering rescue efforts.

CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this post.

Access to Twitter has been restricted in Turkey, according to reports by an internet monitoring company and journalists and academics tracking the country's response to the devastating earthquake this week.

On Wednesday, the network monitoring firm NetBlocks said traffic filtering had been applied at the internet service provider level that was preventing Twitter users from reaching the social media site.  

The report coincided with user claims that Twitter was inaccessible in the country, and as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan began a tour of the affected region. 

"Widespread reports of Twitter being throttled in Turkey," tweeted Zeynep Tufekci, a professor at Columbia University who was born in Istanbul and a longtime scholar of large-scale social media usage. Tufekci added that some Twitter users had been expressing "increasing dissatisfaction" with Turkey's response effort.

Some Twitter users made appeals to Twitter CEO Elon Musk for help, tagging his Twitter handle in an apparent effort to flag the issue for his attention.

CNN has reached out to Twitter for comment.

Turkey’s stock market has sunk 15% in the three days since the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, piling further pain onto an already fragile economy.

Trading on Istanbul’s stock exchange was halted Wednesday after the main index dropped 7% in early dealing, according to Turkey’s Central Securities Depository.

The suspension came after the exchange attempted to restore calm by issuing two circuit breakers — a temporary stop in trading to stem panic-selling.

A spokesperson for the exchange did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Remember: Turkey is battling economic crises on several fronts. Annual consumer price inflation peaked at 85.5% in October, before falling back. But in January prices were still a whopping 57.7% higher than in the same month a year before, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute. While Turkey’s economy is exposed to the same forces of global inflation as other countries, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s unorthodox economic policies have aggravated the crisis.

Since September 2021, Turkey’s central bank has cut interest rates as prices have risen, while most of the rest of the world has been increasing rates rapidly to tame inflation.

Last month, the World Bank said it expected Turkey’s economy to grow 2.7% this year, down from 4.7% in 2022.

While Turkey has received an outpouring of support and aid from dozens of countries after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, outreach to Syria has been less enthusiastic, and analysts warn that Syrian victims may become hostages of the politics that have divided Syria for over a decade.

Some background: Different parts of Syria are controlled by a different disparate groups. Its regime, led by President Bashar al-Assad, is shunned by most Western countries and heavily sanctioned due to its brutal suppression of an uprising there that started in 2011. The regime counts Iran and Russia as its closest allies – both global pariahs.

What are the different groups: Some of the areas of Syria most impacted by the earthquake are controlled by the regime, others by Turkish-backed and US-backed opposition forces, Kurdish rebels and Sunni Islamist fighters. Idlib, one of Syria’s last opposition strongholds, is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) organization, an armed Sunni Islamist group.

The complications in sending aid: So far, the UAE, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Egypt, Algeria and India have already sent relief directly to regime-controlled airports. Others such as Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, China, Canada and the Vatican have pledged aid; however it is unclear if that relief will be sent directly to the regime.

The regime insists that all aid to the country, including aid that is meant for areas outside its control, be directed to the capital Damascus. But that hasn’t been received well by activists and observers who fear that the regime could hamper timely aid to thousands of quake victims in rebel-held areas, most of whom are women and children, according to the UN.

Syria’s ministry of foreign affairs did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

“There is likely to be less international assistance provided to opposition areas because that is additionally complicated,” said Charles Lister, senior fellow and director of the Syria and Countering Terrorism & Extremism program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC. “It’s not an area controlled by a sovereign government and makes it difficult for aid operators.”

Additional reporting by CNN’s Chris Liakos

Six people, including one child, were pulled out of the rubble alive in the 60th hour after an earthquake that struck Turkey on Monday, according to CNN's sister network CNN Turk.

CNN Turk cameras showed health officials running towards the rubble in Kahramanmaras.

A few minutes later, cameras showed a rescue team officer carrying a young child with short brown curly hair.  

The CNN Turk reporter called the rescue operation a "miracle escape" and "unbelievable."

The rescue happened in the city center of Kahramanmaras, according to the CNN Turk correspondent.