But earthquakes are a regular fact of life in many parts of a country that sits on the intersection of two major fault lines. Q3: Have earthquakes happened in Turkey before?Ī3: Turkey ranks among “the most seismically active countries in the world.” The initial 7.8 earthquake on February 6 was the highest magnitude earthquake recorded in Turkey since 1939 and the second highest in its recorded history. Syrian refugees have been forced to navigate shifting temporary protection measures while dealing with the psychological and physical effects of protracted displacement for Syrian refugees, the earthquakes create new trauma on top of old. Though the municipality of Gaziantep has prioritized integration of Syrian refugees for years, the earthquake adds will further stress an already stressed environment. Over one million Syrians live in the Turkey-Syria border region, almost half a million in Gaziantep city alone. Of the nearly 3.8 million registered refugees in Turkey-by far the largest number of refugees hosted by any country in the world-an overwhelming majority are Syrian. Many of the local and international NGOs that would typically respond to such a disaster have (or have in the recent past had) a presence in Gaziantep supporting Syrian refugees this could help them understand the terrain and the language, but it also means that many of their own operations could have been destroyed or damaged.įourth, Gaziantep is the economic and political center of a region literally on the frontlines of humanitarian response after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011. In addition to the loss of life this has caused, the magnitude of the destruction means that all relief efforts will be challenging thanks to blocked roads, damaged bridges, communications and power outages, food and water shortages, and other critical disruptions. Third, the strength of the earthquakes resulted in entire neighborhoods being reduced to rubble. Though search and rescue and humanitarian relief teams have been deployed from 45 countries around the world-including two 79-person search and rescue teams and a Disaster Assistance Response Team from the United States-wintry conditions will make search and rescue operations and all humanitarian relief efforts more challenging. Snow blanketed the region over the weekend and cold rain fell over rubble on Monday afternoon temperatures dropped to near freezing levels in the evening hours. Second, this happened in the middle of winter in a region where temperatures routinely dip below freezing this time of year. These lessons include the critical need to coordinate assistance, to build local resilience, and to draw from and strengthen local response structures. In the coming days and weeks and months, international donors and NGOs will need to draw on lessons from other rapid onset disasters (e.g., tsunami and hurricane relief) which share similar destructive qualities. The physical and psychological human impact will be far greater and longer lasting. Search and rescue operations will continue for the next few days, after which efforts will shift to recovery and ultimately to rebuilding damaged and destroyed infrastructure. But the already high death toll could continue to grow for at least four reasons.įirst, since the initial earthquake struck when many people were still at home, most were likely to have been in the thousands of buildings that were destroyed. Q2: What are some of the biggest concerns?Ī2: The biggest concerns are and will continue to be the loss of life and providing humanitarian relief to survivors. Within 24 hours, an estimated 5,600 buildings were destroyed in Turkey and over 5,000 people had died in Turkey and Syria, though these figures are likely to grow in the coming days. Home to over 2 million people, Gaziantep is the sixth largest city in Turkey. A1: The reverberations from the earthquakes were felt in Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan, though initial estimates suggest the greatest devastation occurred in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria.
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