Live updates: Over 8,000 pulled alive since last week quakes – Erdogan

The desperate search for earthquake survivors in Türkiye and Syria continues on Tuesday as rescuers using sniffer dogs and thermal cameras surveyed pulverised apartment blocks for any sign of life eight days after the disaster.

Teams in southern Türkiye’s city of Hatay rescued 26-year-old Emine Akgul 201 hours after last week’s disaster.

18-year-old Muhammed Cetin, and two brothers were also pulled from the rubble in Adiyaman and Kahramanmaras on Tuesday, 198 hours after the earthquake.

In Türkiye, the death toll stands at 31,974, while the number of deaths in Syria reached 5,814, according to the latest figures from the UN and the Syrian regime’s Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), bringing the total death toll to over 37,778.

Turkish Ambassador to the UN Feridun Sinirlioglu told the Security Council on Monday that there is an urgent need for relief in the region affected by the earthquake last week.

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

1240 GMT — UN delegation visits quake-hit Idlib in Syria

A UN delegation made its first-hand tour in the Syrian opposition-held areas that were badly affected by last week’s devastating earthquakes.

The UN delegation entered the Syrian territory from the Bab al Hawa border crossing with Türkiye and headed towards Idlib province in northwestern Syria.

The delegation is scheduled to meet with the heads of humanitarian organizations and civil society groups involved in relief efforts for the quake victims in the area, sources told Anadolu.

1144 GMT — Medical supplies worth $846,000 sent to Türkiye, Syria: India

India has sent emergency medical supplies worth approximately $846,000 that include life-saving medicines, protective gear, and critical care equipment since last week’s deadly earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, the Health Ministry said.

The Indian government is presently sending relief materials, medicines, equipment, and rescuers to earthquake-hit Türkiye and Syria under “Operation Dost,” or Friendship Operation.

So far, the government has dispatched seven flights to the two countries, the ministry said in a statement.

1127 GMT — WHO launches $43M appeal to support earthquake response in Syria, Türkiye

“I expect this to at least double over the coming days, as we get a better assessment of the massive scale of this crisis and the needs,” said WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge in a press briefing related to urgent health needs and response in Türkiye following last week’s earthquakes.

Kluge said that the money will be used to “Ensure access to the most vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations, provide trauma care and post-trauma rehabilitation and provide essential medicines and emergency kits to fill urgent healthcare gaps.”

It will also be used to “deliver vital mental and psychosocial support to the affected populations and ensure continuity of routine health services, especially for women, children, the elderly, and those with non-communicable diseases,” he added.

1112 GMT — Qatar donates World Cup mobile homes to earthquake survivors

Qatar has announced that it plans to send 10,000 cabins and caravans from last year’s World Cup to provide shelter for survivors of the earthquakes that hit Türkiye and Syria.

The gas-rich Gulf nation said on Tuesday that it had always planned to donate the mobile homes. They were needed to help house some of the 1.4 million fans who descended on the small country during football’s biggest tournament.

An initial batch of 350 structures was shipped out on Sunday, according to the Qatar Fund for Development.

1104 GMT — Türkiye death toll rises to 31,974

At least 31,974 people have lost their lives in all 10 provinces following the earthquakes that hit Türkiye, according to the country’s emergency agency AFAD on Tuesday.

AFAD said that 8,000 people were also rescued from the rubble as of Tuesday.

1057 GMT — Turkish schools in Kyrgyzstan provide humanitarian aid

Turkish schools in Kyrgyzstan have provided humanitarian aid to earthquake victims in southeastern Türkiye.

“In a week, more than seven tonnes of clothing, food, generators and blankets, which constitute in-kind aid, were collected,” the educational counselor at the Turkish Embassy in Kyrgyzstan, Kursat Dulkadir, told Anadolu.

Dulkadir further said that approximately $185,000 were also deposited into the account opened by the embassy following the earthquakes.

1039 GMT — More than 7 million children affected by Turkey-Syria quake: UN

More than seven million children have been affected by the massive earthquake and a major aftershock that devastated Türkiye and Syria last week, the United Nations said Tuesday, voicing fear that “many thousands” more had died.

“In Turkey, the total number of children living in the 10 provinces hit by the two earthquakes was 4.6 million children. In Syria, 2.5 million children are affected,” James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency Unicef, told reporters in Geneva.

0926 GMT —  Over 8,000 people pulled alive from quake rubble: Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said rescue teams have pulled out more than 8,000 people alive from the quake debris since the strong tremors struck southeastern Türkiye last week.

He also said a large number of over 81,000 people injured in the earthquakes have been discharged from hospitals.

“I would like to thank once again to all the friendly and sisterly countries that have been collecting aid for our nation day and night, supporting our search and rescue efforts with their teams, and not forgetting us in their prayers,” Erdogan added in a video message sent to the World Government Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

0854 GMT — Greek Orthodox churches in UK collect donations for quake survivors

All Greek Orthodox Churches in the UK have collected donations for victims of the earthquakes.

The move came by the order of the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in the UK, an incredible gesture given the decades-long political dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.

“Our hearts are broken seeing what happened in Türkiye, that was hit by earthquakes,” the priest, Revd. Dr. Chrysostom Tympas, said during a Sunday service at the Greek Orthodox Church Saint Anargye in London.

0802 GMT — Brothers rescued 198 hours after earthquakes in Turkiye

Rescue teams have saved two brothers — 17-year-old Muhammed Enes Yeninar and 21-year-old Baki Yeninarn — after they survived 198 hours under rubble in quake-hit Kahramanmaras.

0719 GMT — Rescuers find another survivor in Türkiye’s Adiyaman

Rescuers in Türkiye have saved an 18-year-old man under a collapsed building in the southeastern city of Adiyaman.

Reports identified the teenager as Muhammed Cetin, who was rescued 198 hours after last week’s disaster.

0653 GMT — White Helmets say search efforts for quake survivors in northwest Syria about to end

Search operations for more survivors beneath the rubble are about to end in the opposition north west of Syria eight days after the devastating earthquake, the White Helmets main rescue group has said.

“It’s about to come to a close. The indications we have are that there are not any (survivors), but we are trying to do our final checks and on all sites,” said Raed al Saleh who heads the White Helmets group that has carried out the major rescue operations in the devastated region.

The group, which has rescue workers across the region where whole neighbourhoods and villages were wiped out, said they were also collecting names of the missing people in the enclave where the group’s latest death toll stood at 3,167 with thousands injured in the opposition-controlled areas.

0612 GMT — Russia says more than 300 troops helping Syria recover from earthquake

More than 300 Russian servicemen and 60 units of special military equipment are helping Syria in its response to a devastating earthquake that struck more than a week ago, according to Russia’s defence ministry.

“Servicemen of the Russian group of forces continue to carry out activities to clear rubble and eliminate the consequences of earthquakes,” the defence ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday, referring to Russian forces stationed in Syria.

Regime media said 1,414 people were killed in the regime-controlled areas of the country. The White Helments said that 3,167 people were killed in the opposition-controlled areas, bringing the total death toll in Syria at 4,581. However, Russian forces only managed to help those in the regime-controlled areas.

Russia, which backs Syrian leader Bashar al Assad, has been a dominant military force in Syria since launching air strikes and ground operations there in 2015 during the the Battle of Aleppo (2012-2016).

0559 GMT — Mexico pays homage to ‘heroic’ dog that died in Türkiye rescue efforts

Mexico has paid tribute to a military rescue dog that died while searching for survivors buried under the rubble of the earthquake in Türkiye.

Defence Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval announced the death of the German shepherd called Proteo at President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s daily news conference on Monday.

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0448 GMT — Syria agrees to open two new crossings for quake aid: US 

The Syrian regime of Bashar al Assad has agreed to open two new crossing points from Türkiye to the country’s opposition-held northwest to deliver desperately needed aid and equipment to help millions of earthquake victims, the United Nations announced.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the agreement to open crossing points at Bab Al-Salam and Al Raée for an initial period of three months.

Currently, the UN has only been permitted to deliver aid to the northwest Idlib area through a single crossing at Bab Al-Hawa, at Syrian ally Russia’s insistence.

The announcement followed a meeting in Damascus earlier Monday between Assad and UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, who spent the weekend visiting areas hit by the disaster.

Opposition-run rescue group criticised the UN decision, saying it gave the Assad regime “free political gain.”