06:34: Death toll rises to 4,544 in Turkey
The death toll from the devastating earthquakes has passed 4,544 in Turkey, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) stated, as thousands of people still remain trapped under rubble.
1200 people lost their lives in Syria, according to the Syrian authorities.
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05:32 (CET): Turkey updates number of fatalities to 3,703
Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) in a press briefing on Tuesday announced that the number of people to loose their lives as a result of two major tremors that shook the country’s south on Monday, has risen to 3,703.
The number of those injured is 22,286 according to the state institution’s latest update.
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05:28 (CET): Turkey’s opposition alliance postpone decision on presidential candidate to focus on earthquake response
Six opposition parties in Turkey, led by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the centre-right Good Party (İYİP), that formed an alliance for the upcoming Turkish elections, announced a critical joint meeting originally scheduled for 13 February will be postponed while the alliance is engaged in earthquake response.
The planned meeting was crucial as the party leaders were expected to decide on their presidential candidate to rival Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The elections in Turkey was scheduled for June, but Erdoğan announced last month that they could be held on 14 May. However, following the major tremors that affected 10 provinces housing 13,5 million people, many question whether elections will still take place as expected.
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05:07 (CET): Turkey’s ruling party lawmaker dies in earthquake
Yakup Taş, a lawmaker of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) from earthquake striken Adıyaman province, lost his life under the rubbles.
Twenty members of the Taş family including the lawmaker’s wife, siblings and grandchildren were also found by rescue teams.
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05:07 (CET): Turkish prosecutors launch investigation into two journalists over comments on earthquake
Prosecutors in İstanbul launched an investigation into journalists Meridian Yanardağ and Enver Aysever for “provoking public hatred and hostility in the public” for reporting on the two earthquakes that rocked Turkey’s south on Monday.
The prosecutors justified the investigations over Yanardağ’s comments on opposition channel TELE1 and Aysever’s social media posts.
Meanwhile, the three-month state of emergency declared for 10 provinces that were most affected by the disaster has immediately been put to use to censor the media.
The police in the Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır (Amed) used the state of emergency to prevent reporters following rescue efforts on a collapsed 12-storey business centre in the city. The police drove off the reporters from the rescue area.
Mezopotamya news agency reported that in all areas hit by the earthquakes the police have been conducting criminal record checks of journalists and threatening locals who talk to journalists telling them that they could be taken into custody.
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14:52 (CET): Turkey declares 3-month state of emergency in 10 provinces
The Turkish government on Tuesday declared a three month state of emergency in the ten provinces hit by two major earthquakes on Monday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced.
The Turkish constitution allows the government to declare a state of emergency in the case of massive disasters, giving state institutions the authority to restrict basic rights and freedoms, to appropriate private belongings that pose a danger, to ban the possession of firearms, and to limit entrance to the designated state of emergency areas.
Erdoğan said that the same provinces have also been declared as areas of disaster that affect public life.
The country’s president also updated the number of people killed in earthquakes in Turkey as 3,549 and those injured as 22,168.
Erdoğan added that the government allocated a TL100 billion [$53 million] to state institutions responsible for disaster response.
Some 1,000 ambulances and 5,000 medical professionals have been engaged in rescue efforts, according to Erdoğan, while the Turkish military is assisting those efforts with troops as well as 10 ships and 54 cargo planes.
“Those earthquakes have led to massive destruction in a large area. The experts identify those earthquakes as exceptional ground motions. They have created a tremendous destruction. We are facing one of the greatest disasters in our geography,” Erdoğan said.
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14:10 (CET): 20 ISIS members allegedly escaped from prison in north Syria
Twenty members of the Islamic State (ISIS) used the earthquakes that hit Syria on Monday as an opportunity to escape a prison in the town of Rojo, Agence-France Press reported.
The prison controlled by Turkey-backed rebel faction houses about 2,000 prisoners, the majority of which are ISIS members, while the rest are mainly fighters of the Kurdish groups, a source told AFP.
“About 20 people escaped from prison, according to the prison’s initial estimates, and it is believed that they are Daesh [ISIS] prisoners,” the source said.
The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, a UK-based war watchdog, said it could not verify whether prisoners had escaped.
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14:06 (CET): Afrin dam cracked after earthquake
Cracks and fissures emerged on Maydanki dam in the northern Syrian city of Afrin, after the region was hit by two major earthquakes on Monday.
The photos and footage shared on social media show large cracks on the dam. Authorities have closed access to the area.
Adnan al-Moubayed, an engineer specialising in seismology, told Enab Baladi that in theory the dam should be able to resist earthquakes up to 9 magnitudes, but lack of maintenance during the 11-years of civil war have decreased the lifespan of the Maydanki dam and its safety.
The engineer said that if water started to leak from the cracks, it would expand the existing cracks and create additional ones, which in turn would put the dam at risk of total collapse.
The dam, also known as simply as the Afrin dam, provides drinking water for almost 200,000 people and is the main source of irrigation for local agricultural production.
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14:03 (CET): Earthquake victims raid Adıyaman governorship
A large group of people gathered inside the governor’s office in Turkey’s southeastern province of Adıyaman to protest failing earthquake humanitarian aid and rescue efforts.
Footage shared by several media outlets show people shouting “Adıyaman left alone, where is the aid,” while the governor, surrounded by his personnel, laughed.
📌 Adıyaman'da halk Valiliği bastı. Adıyaman Valisinin sorunlarını söyleyen halka güldüğü kameralara yansıdı. pic.twitter.com/rbCcEPsgAS
— Yeni Demokrasi (@YDemokrasi11) February 7, 2023
The conservative Adıyaman, where the ruling Justice And Development Party (AKP) received 55 percent of the votes in 2018 elections, is one of the provinces strongly hit by Monday’s earthquakes.
#AdıyamanYardımBekliyor [#AdıyamanAwaitsHelp] hashtag is trending on Turkey’s social media along with a similar one for Hatay, another province where rescue efforts have so far remain limited.
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01:32 (CET): Rescue teams and humanitarian aid from abroad start arriving in Turkey
Dozens of countries have rushed to assist Turkey in responding two major earthquakes that hit the country’s south and northern Syria on Monday.
The United Kingdom is sending a 76-people search-and-rescue team with equipment and dogs to Turkey and are coordinating with the United Nations to help victims in Syria.
The United States is sending Turkey a 79-person search-and-rescue team as well as nearly 100 Los Angeles County firefighters and structural engineers.
Italy, Spain, Germany and France are among 13 European countries sending or offering to send search-and-rescue teams or humanitarian aid to Turkey, while the European Union has activated the Copernicus satellite system to provide emergency mapping services.
Russia, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Pakistan, India, Serbia, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Mexico, China are among other countries that have offered their hand in Turkey’s disaster response efforts.
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01:31 (CET): Turkey mobilises second army command to step up rescue efforts
Commandoes under Turkey’s second army command based in the earthquake hit Malatya province have been mobilised to step up rescue efforts, Independent Turkish reported on Tuesday.
The decision of Turkish authorities came after numerous calls from people on social media, questioning why the country’s most organised and massive source of man power has been left out of rescue efforts despite the fact that disaster response is one of the main missions of the military.
As of Monday evening, only 3,500 troops were sent to the earthquake area, less than one per every collapsed building currently estimated as more than 5,700.
The Turkish government’s reluctance to use the military for disaster management is linked to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s fears over a possible military coup that could topple him, many speculated on social media.
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12:02 (CET): Fire at port in Turkey’s southern province of Hatay continues to grow
The fire that broke out after the major earthquakes on Monday at the port in the Iskenderun district of Hatay continues to grow. Locals said that the fire was not responded to in time and became too big to be extinguished. Smoke from the fire in the port covers the Amanos Mountains and explosions occur intermittently.
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The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria has passed 5,000 following two massive earthquakes on Monday and in the midst of continuing aftershocks.
Turkey’s vice president announced the updated death toll as 3,419, while 1,602 people have been reported death in Syria, as the critical 72-hour window for rescue efforts is closing quickly.
So far 20,534 people are injured, while more than 8,000 people have been rescued in 10 provinces of Turkey hit by the earthquakes and ensuing 312 aftershocks.
The rescue efforts in Turkey have been hampered by unfavourable weather conditions and damaged roads. Turkish authorities have been trying to transport some of the injured via sea, while some 3,400 who have survived spent the night in carriages provided by the Turkish railways. About 55 helicopters and 85 trucks are also helping rescue and aid distribution efforts.
The number of collapsed buildings in Turkey has surpassed 5,700. The number does not include those heavily damaged and at risk of collapsing due to aftershocks.
Rescue efforts in the country are carried out by nearly 25,000 personnel in a region that houses 13,5 million people. Social media messages from earthquake areas and interviews on television channels show that no rescue or humanitarian aid has reached many locations, particularly Hatay and Adıyaman provinces.
In war-thorn Syria, the situation is also grim with the state news agency reporting 812 people as dead and 1,449 people as injured in Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Idlib provinces. Reuters reported that the death toll in rebel-held areas has risen to 790, warning that the number could increase dramatically in coming days.
The impact of the earthquake in Syria is exacerbated with the destruction of 11-years of war which has left many building in the country’s north structurally weak. Hundreds of families are still trapped under the rubble the Syrian civil defence told Reuters, while harsh weather conditions and fuel shortages creating obstacles for rescue efforts.
“The infrastructure is damaged, the roads that we used to use for humanitarian work are damaged, we have to be creative in how to get to the people … but we are working hard,” UN resident coordinator El-Mostafa Benlamlih told Reuters in an interview via video link from Damascus.
