Search and rescue efforts continue on the fifth day after the devastating twin earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria. The total number of deaths is now over 20,000. Turkish President Erdoğan has admitted there was a late response to dealing with the earthquakes, while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited the affected area for the first time, as Twitter suspend his account over posts criticising international charities.
The state of emergency that President Erdoğan declared on Tuesday and the Turkish parliament voted into force on Thursday afternoon will “give the state the opportunity to intervene against loan sharks” and looters, Erdoğan told reporters.
As rescue efforts continue, a Turkish official told Reuters that parliamentary and presidential elections currently planned for three months from now may have to be postponed.
The Turkish Justice Ministry falsely announced that a riot occurred in a prison in Kahramanmaraş instead of Hatay, both deeply affected by Monday’s earthquakes.
And, on the fourth day after the earthquakes, no mobile morgues or funeral vehicles to transport bodies were available in several predominantly Kurdish and Alevi-populated provinces in southeastern Turkey.
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