Southern Turkey and Northwest Syria were rocked by a devastating earthquake at midnight on February 6.
With a magnitude of 7.8, and its aftershocks reaching 7.5, the quake has claimed at least 35,000 lives and laid waste to urban settlements and heritage sites alike, with many thousands still trapped under the rubble.
Amid rescue efforts, India’s robust assistance won hearts in Turkey and Syria even as the two national governments face heavy criticism for their response. Turkey’s Erdogan promised a $100 million relief package on a tour of the affected regions even as rescue operations are wrapped up in all but two provinces of Turkey.
The chief of UN relief has said that the fi nal death toll in Syria and Turkey will reach 55,000. This is the deadliest tremor to hit Turkey since 1939.
In war-torn Syria, much of the quake’s impact was felt in the rebel-held northwest, including the city of Aleppo, which is currently divided into government and rebel-held areas. President Asad has been accused of withholding aid resources and not permitting more border crossings to facilitate the movement of UN relief workers and material to rebel-held territories. The Syrian Arab Republic has reacted to the allegations by blaming US sanctions as the reason for inadequate aid reaching the victims.
Glimmers of hope were seen amid the devastation, with families and children being rescued from the rubble. One such story emerged from the district of Nurdagi in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, where the Indian NDRF (National Disaster Relief Force) rescued an 8-year old girl from a collapsed building with local assistance.
Indian assistance to Turkey and Syria has been robust. The NDRF was deployed to Turkey in 3 teams of 151 personnel under Operation Dost and assisted Turkish emergency services and the Turkish Army in many successful rescue missions like the one in Nurdagi. The Indian relief presence on the ground counts among the largest. Additionally, the Indian Army had set up a fi eld hospital in the city of Iskenderun. By February 11, the IAF had fl own 7 missions to Turkey and Syria. Indian relief efforts included the airlifting of tons of aid material to Turkey and Syria as well as supplies for Indian Army and NDRF personnel on the ground. On February 19, with the Turkish emergency service, AFAD, announcing the end of rescue operations the IAF fl ew the last deployed NDRF team home, concluding the successful Indian rescue mission.