Turkey & Syria: The earthquake that shook everyone
The aftermath of the earthquake (Getty Images)
By Sanjukta Salgaonkar
The earthquake that has destroyed many lives in Turkey and Syria has had a devastating aftermath. The earthquake has killed more than 8,500 people.
The Kahramanmaras earthquake hit on 6th February with a magnitude of 7.8.
Earthquakes sometimes occur naturally or as a result of human activities. Though for a centuries, humans have been aware of the human-induced earthquakes that occur during mining and the extraction of natural resources such as coal, crude oil or natural gas.
According to the article posted on Michigan Tech, Earthquakes are usually caused when underground rock suddenly breaks and there is rapid motion along a fault. This sudden release of energy causes the seismic waves that make the ground shake.
About more than 380,000 people have taken refuge in government shelters, shopping malls, stadiums, mosques.
One day after the tragedy the President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared state of emergency in the region for the next three months.
According to the latest report of the death toll of Turkey it has risen to 24,617, while the death toll in Syria has be risen by 3,553 making it total of 28,000 deaths in the earthquake. As the minute passes by, the number of the death toll and the injured people keep on increasing.
The Syrian government received help from countries like Egypt, Iraq and Russia. While the head of the Syrian White Helmets accused the United Nations of failing to deliver proper humanitarian aid to the areas of the country, saying that the response the country received was “catastrophic” and saying that the UN should “apologise to the Syrian People for the lack of help it provided”.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is sending special flights with medical supplies to Turkey and Syria for helping the affected areas.
Two days after the earthquake was hit Syria requested aid through the EU civil protection mechanism.
The European Commission’s head of crisis management Janez Lenarici said “Earlier today, this morning, we have received a request from the government of Syria for assistance through the civil protection mechanism,” Reuters reports Lenarcic told the media.
Also among the people caught in the earthquake were 3 Britishers and 4 Australians. James Cleverly, the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs said that “We assess that the likelihood of large scale British casualties remain low.”
The Australian government has started giving consular assistance to the families of the 4 missing citizens and the 40 Australians that were present there.
As other countries have also started sending resources to aid rescue operations and help the affected regions of the earthquake, the number of people affected by the tragedy remains more than we can count.
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