Update: 06.02.2023 18:04
Issued by: 06.02.2023, 12:44
Ankara/Damasek/Prague – Turkey and Syria were hit by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake this morning. According to the balance so far, it has claimed at least 2,400 human lives, and thousands of other people are injured. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it was the biggest earthquake since 1939. Rescuers and civilians in both countries are searching for victims in cold weather. Dozens of countries are offering help to the affected areas, Turkey has already accepted the Czech Republic’s offer to send a 68-member team of firefighters there. World politicians, including President Miloš Zeman, express their condolences to Turkey and Syria.
At least 1,541 people have died in Turkey, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Fuat Oktay said. The tremors were felt in eleven Turkish provinces, at least 9,733 were injured, the deputy prime minister added. As Reuters reported, at least 928 people died across Syria, including 538 in government-controlled areas in the provinces of Halab (formerly Aleppo), Hama, Latakia and Tartus. The aid organization known as the White Helmets reported at least 390 deaths and 1,000 wounded in opposition-held areas of northwest Syria.
The 7.8-magnitude tremors, which were felt as far away as Cairo, were recorded 33 kilometers from the city of Gaziantep, with an epicenter at a depth of 18 kilometers, the US Geological Survey said. Dozens of aftershocks hit the area in the following hours. Before noon CET, another earthquake struck southeast Turkey, which, according to the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Agency AFAD, had a magnitude of 7.6. Aftershocks were also reported from Syria and Lebanon.
The first earthquake came before dawn and woke people from their sleep. “In the 40 years I’ve been in the world, I don’t remember anything like this,” said a man named Erdem from Gaziantep, where historical monuments, including a UNESCO World Heritage site, have also been vandalized. “We were rocking like in a cradle,” one woman in Diyarbakir, another Turkish city hit, described the quake. There, cranes and rescue teams pulled people from several damaged floors of the apartment complex. Hundreds of rescuers and volunteers in Diyarbakir formed a human chain near the pile of rubble, handing out concrete fragments and demolished household equipment, while nearby, excavators removed chunks of construction material. Adana airport suspended operations. The Turkish military has established an air corridor to transport search and rescue teams.
In Syria, devastated by nearly 12 years of civil war, the earthquake also affected areas controlled by opposition forces. About four million people displaced by the conflict live in these regions, often in destitute conditions. Even under normal circumstances, health care is difficult to access there, and emergency workers now say hospitals are bursting at the seams. In Damascus, buildings shook and people ran into the streets in fear. The situation was similar in the Lebanese cities of Beirut and Tripoli. The tremors were also felt elsewhere in the region.
For example, the United States, the EU, Israel or Ukraine, which is facing Russian aggression, will send aid to the affected areas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said that Ukraine is “close to friends in Turkey” and is ready to provide the necessary assistance. Russia has announced that it has 100 rescuers on standby ready to hit the road. The head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, announced that ten search and rescue teams had been mobilized to support the Turkish rescuers. In addition to the Czech Republic, they are from France, Bulgaria, Greece or Poland. A team of members of the fire department of Prague and the Moravian-Silesian region will go to the scene from the Czech Republic. The collection was announced by the organization People in Need.
President Miloš Zeman sent a telegram of condolence to his Turkish counterpart, and addressed other condolences to the Syrian people. Prime Minister Petr Fiala and the head of Czech diplomacy Jan Lipavský also expressed regret to all those affected by the disaster.
There is a group of Czechs in the Turkish province of Kahramanmaraş. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they are fine, the embassy in Ankara is in contact with them and is arranging transport for them from the affected area. The ministry has no information that Czechs were among the victims or injured, said its spokeswoman Mariana Wernerová.
The earthquake means enormous material damage in Turkey, which will range from one to ten billion dollars (roughly CZK 22 to 220 billion), and could thus correspond to up to two percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), the American service USGS said . According to the Turkish president, more than 2,800 buildings collapsed. The Turkish lira fell to a record low against the dollar, Turkish stocks also weakened. The Ceyhan oil terminal in southern Turkey has suspended operations and the earthquake has also disrupted gas supplies to some provinces, according to state oil and gas pipeline operator BOTAS.
The 7.8-magnitude tremors that have now hit Turkey and Syria have equaled Turkey’s strongest earthquake in modern history. In May 1939, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck the northeastern province of Erzincan, killing over 30,000 people. The strongest earthquake in history had a magnitude of 9.5 and devastated the area around the cities of Valdivia and Concepción in southern Chile in May 1960. The subsequent waves of the tsunami then also affected Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines, the disaster claimed 2,000 to 6,000 lives.
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