Massive destruction left by the Monday earthquake in northern Syria as well as the US-EU sanctions against Damascus have made sending aid to the earthquake-hit areas extremely difficult, UN experts say.
After a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and several aftershocks struck parts of eastern Turkey and neighboring Syria this Monday, the number of casualties is still rising. By late Tuesday, the death toll in Turkey and Syria had surpassed 7,700. Turkey suffered more casualties than Syria with more than 5,800 people dead and nearly 35,000 injured, The Associated Press reported. By the same time, more than 1800 deaths and around 4,000 injuries were reported in northern Syria.
To help the earthquake-hit areas in Turkey, many countries around the world expressed readiness upon Turkey’s demand. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced this Tuesday that NATO, EU countries and 45 other countries had responded to Turkey’s appeal for help. “We have prioritized search and rescue missions. Countries have started to reach Turkey with international help,” he said.
In a joint statement, EU High Representative Josep Borrell and the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said teams had been mobilized from Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania to support first responders on the ground.
In addition to the EU, Britain also offered help. “The UK stands ready to help in whatever way we can,” British PM Rishi Sunak said.. NATO also offered aid to the defender of its southern flank. “Full solidarity with our ally Turkey in the aftermath of this terrible earthquake. I am in touch with President Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. NATO Allies are mobilizing support now,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter.
Last but not least, U.S. President Joe Biden said in statement that U.S. “teams are deploying quickly to begin to support Turkish search and rescue efforts and address the needs of those injured and displaced by the earthquake.”
Biden spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday to offer condolences and said the United States will send “any and all” aid needed to help recovery, the White House said in a statement.
No such generosities for Syria
The story for Syria, however, has been different as none of the above-mentioned countries has expressed readiness the send aid to Syrian people affected by the earthquake as they did for Turkey.
For Syria, not only the US and EU countries have not offered any aid, but the sanctions imposed by them on the Syrian government has made any sort of assistance to the critical areas nearly impossible. Syrians were already desperate for aid, and are even more so now, but there is no freedom of movement or access for delivery.
Reluctant to route aid directly through the government, American and EU officials have made clear the quake won’t change their policies and the sanctions will remain in place. This is while emergency workers say delays to send help to the affected areas could cost lives.
Aid delivery into northwestern Syria was “temporarily disrupted” Tuesday, a United Nations spokesperson told The Associated Press, due to infrastructure damage and difficulty with road access.
Good to mention that U.S. sanctions and to some extent EU ones have, for years, prevented rebuilding of damaged infrastructure and property in Syria. Still, the sanctions exacerbate the “difficult humanitarian situation,” the UN official also noted.
