The combined death toll from the devastating 6 February earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria is now 41,218. In Turkey, the identities of 291 unaccompanied children who have survived have still not been verified. In war-torn Syria, the disaster has affected 2.5 million children.
According to Mehmet Sinan Canpolat, the head of Mersin Chamber of Real Estate Agents, rents have increased in the province by 50 percent over the last week. Canpolat told Cumhuriyet newspaper that they will file an official complaint against agents and home owners who have been trying to profit from the disaster.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party was the only party in the Turkish Parliament that as a whole opposed a construction amnesty in 2018. Garo Paylan explained the reasons for the party’s opposition, and discussed the proposed law.
Reports from the earthquake-hit area indicate a disorganisation in burial services, with people waiting in queues to get the bodies of their relatives from morgues and many burying them without official registration due to complex bureaucracy and in an effort to leave the heavily destroyed areas as soon as possible.
The area between Bingöl and Karlıova, a mainly Kurdish-populated region, emerges as a special case for earthquake experts as it sits in the middle of a triangle made up of three different fault lines.
Wednesday marks the start of the 25th year of struggle since the abduction of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan from Kenya to Turkey. Kenya’s former Chief Justice Willi Mutunga said the then-President of Kenya played a role in the CIA-assisted abduction.Learn more in our Daily Review.
