Earthquake Between Turkey and Syria: Millions Await Help While Suffering Cold and Sorrow
With thousands dead and many more homeless in Turkey and Syria, people struggling to dig up victims, bury the dead and provide for to the needs of millions of survivors are pleading for more help.
KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkey — The city's football stadium is filled with tents to shelter families whose homes have been destroyed in this week's earthquakes. Outside, where people huddle in cars or around small fires to ward off the freezing cold, work crews struggle to extract the living and dead from the ruins of collapsed apartment buildings.
The dead bodies are taken to a covered gymnasium and laid on the ground. Families searching for missing loved ones go hand in hand to peek at faces. They move on if they don't recognize the corpse and scream in pain when they do.
It was in that football stadium, in the devastated city from Kahramanmaras in southern Turkey that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his first appearance in the earthquake-affected area on Wednesday, acknowledging the gravity of the crisis and calling on millions of suffering people to persevere. /p>
"We are facing a great catastrophe," he said. “My citizens, my people always have patience. I am certain that my nation will once again show patience.
But the question was how long would this patience last.
The death toll from the earthquake rose to more than 15,000 in southern Turkey and northern Syria on Wednesday, with a unknown number of people still trapped under the rubble and countless others left homeless in the freezing weather. There were moments of elation - a 36-year-old woman was rescued after two and a half days beneath the remains of her home in Gaziantep - but the window for such miracles was closing fast.
In Turkish towns hit by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake and its hundreds of aftershocks on Monday, residents anxiously awaited government help to extract loved ones from thousands of collapsed buildings , keep their families warm and ensure they get enough to eat. The longer this distress lasts, the more it could erode the political position of Mr. Erdogan, who often presents himself as a capable father figure who understands the problems of ordinary people.
Reviews of his government's response to the disaster could weigh on his quest to stay in power in the critical elections scheduled for May 14. Mr Erdogan is already facing headwinds from inflation that topped 80% last year and broader economic tensions that economists say have exacerbated. p>
Political opponents seeking to overthrow Mr. Erdogan took up the issue on Wednesday. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition party and likely presidential candidate, has accused Mr Erdogan's ruling party of making the country more vulnerable through a "systematic profiteering policy".
"If anyone is responsible for this process, it's Erdogan," Kilicdaroglu said. ...
With thousands dead and many more homeless in Turkey and Syria, people struggling to dig up victims, bury the dead and provide for to the needs of millions of survivors are pleading for more help.
KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkey — The city's football stadium is filled with tents to shelter families whose homes have been destroyed in this week's earthquakes. Outside, where people huddle in cars or around small fires to ward off the freezing cold, work crews struggle to extract the living and dead from the ruins of collapsed apartment buildings.
The dead bodies are taken to a covered gymnasium and laid on the ground. Families searching for missing loved ones go hand in hand to peek at faces. They move on if they don't recognize the corpse and scream in pain when they do.
It was in that football stadium, in the devastated city from Kahramanmaras in southern Turkey that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his first appearance in the earthquake-affected area on Wednesday, acknowledging the gravity of the crisis and calling on millions of suffering people to persevere. /p>
"We are facing a great catastrophe," he said. “My citizens, my people always have patience. I am certain that my nation will once again show patience.
But the question was how long would this patience last.
The death toll from the earthquake rose to more than 15,000 in southern Turkey and northern Syria on Wednesday, with a unknown number of people still trapped under the rubble and countless others left homeless in the freezing weather. There were moments of elation - a 36-year-old woman was rescued after two and a half days beneath the remains of her home in Gaziantep - but the window for such miracles was closing fast.
In Turkish towns hit by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake and its hundreds of aftershocks on Monday, residents anxiously awaited government help to extract loved ones from thousands of collapsed buildings , keep their families warm and ensure they get enough to eat. The longer this distress lasts, the more it could erode the political position of Mr. Erdogan, who often presents himself as a capable father figure who understands the problems of ordinary people.
Reviews of his government's response to the disaster could weigh on his quest to stay in power in the critical elections scheduled for May 14. Mr Erdogan is already facing headwinds from inflation that topped 80% last year and broader economic tensions that economists say have exacerbated. p>
Political opponents seeking to overthrow Mr. Erdogan took up the issue on Wednesday. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition party and likely presidential candidate, has accused Mr Erdogan's ruling party of making the country more vulnerable through a "systematic profiteering policy".
"If anyone is responsible for this process, it's Erdogan," Kilicdaroglu said. ...
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