On the 6th of February, two devastating earthquakes hit the Türkiye-Syrian border. The first one, with a magnitude of 7.7, had its centre about 34 kilometres west of the city of Gaziantep. Nine hours later, a second, 7.6 magnitude earthquake, occurred 95 kilometres north-northwest from the first, in the Kahramanmaraş Province.
Followed by over 15,000 aftershocks, the earthquakes were catastrophic, causing widespread damage in southern and central Türkiye and northern and western Syria. An area of 110,000 square kilometres was affected, roughly the size of Bulgaria. 12,000 collapsed, 48,000 people have died and millions more were left homeless.
In the aftermath of these earthquakes, Türkiye sounded a level 4 alarm, calling for global assistance. The international community strongly responded, more than 90 countries sending search and rescue teams and over 10,000 personnel in what has become the biggest search and rescue mission of all-time.
While this act of global solidarity saved thousands of lives, much more help is needed for recovering from what is now the “disaster of the century”. On the 13th of March, a conference took place in the European Parliament on “Solidarity to Overcome Disaster”, aiming at creating a platform for multilateral dialogue between the European Union and Türkiye to improve cooperation, strengthen solidarity, identify immediate humanitarian needs of earthquakes survivors, raise awareness regarding the current situation in Southern Türkiye and Syria and evaluate the effectiveness of current aid and assistance.
“In the aftermath of this unprecedented disaster, the EU acted quickly to provide search and rescue teams, which proved very effective in saving thousands of lives. Members of the European Parliament understand the importance of solidarity in times of crisis and are committed to doing our part to support those in need. We will work together to find solutions to the challenges faced by those affected by the disaster and to build a brighter future. To this end, the EU stands ready to provide financial assistance to this region”, MEP Ryszard Czarnecki opened the conference.
However, “this disaster is so huge, that a few months of assistance will not be enough, we must mobilise on the long term”, said Patrick Van den Eede, President of the Soul of Europe Association, promising that his association will organise several fundraising events and will make sure that the money goes exactly where it is needed. “The most important thing to do for the earthquake survivors is to clean up the area as soon as possible”, added Onur Erim, Former Chief Advisor to Ankara Municipality and chairman of Dragoman Strategies.
“By now, more than 3.7 million people have been evacuated. We are taking steps to support them financially and emotionally – so that they can rebuild their lives and send their children to school. We offer temporary housing to some 2 million citizens. For this purpose, we made available tents, container homes, student dorms, ships and guest houses”, explained Fahrettin Altun, Director of Turkish Presidential Communications. Moreover, President Erdoğan promised to rebuild safe and permanent housing units in the region within one year.
Beyond Türkiye, one of the crucial immediate actions that are needed now, especially for the affected region in Syria, is for the UN to find a way of sending aid through Türkiye instead of Damascus, stressed Patrick van den Eede, Dr Koert Debeuf, former advisor to Belgian Prime Minister, Research Fellow at Oxford University and Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy Europe.
“We live in a world where disasters are just around the corner, we never know where or when something will happen. I don’t think we can ever be fully prepared for something like this. We can prepare rescue teams, like we have done in the past, but it’s never big enough or fast enough. Rescuers from all around the world came to Türkiye immediately and it still wasn’t enough. All we can do is react swiftly and reconstruct as soon as possible”, Dr Debeuf said.
The estimated damages mount up to $100 billion and within just two weeks only the Turkish citizens raised $6 billion in donations, said Erim. But, more importantly, the disaster has shown that, “regardless of the differences we may have between Türkiye and the EU, in times like these we were able to come together”, he highlighted.
“We must keep in mind that pandemics, wars and disasters have global impacts. We must develop a new model of international cooperation to stop them and heal the wounds. In this context, we attach great importance to the upcoming donor conference by the European Commission. This event shall highlight the European states’ support to Türkiye and raise funds for long-term projects for earthquake survivors. States may disagree from time to time. But we were happy to see how many friends we had – and that we could find a common ground as human beings”, Altun concluded.