Two major earthquakes hit Turkey, Syria

commandlinegamer

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commandlinegamer
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Articles are now putting the number of dead in the mid-2000s with rumors of the death toll reaching 10,000+
 
Something tells me the Assad regime is going to be totally inept in trying to handle this situation in Syria.
 
The lead on one show went with a video of a man crying and holding a dead baby where only the baby's face was pixillated. Bastards.

Well, it is ratings month...
 
It sounds as if this is going to be truly awful. I seem to recall that there are a couple of members of these forums from that region. Emre? Others? Hope you're doing all right.

I have a sort of general social question here, which maybe someone from the region can answer.

I recently visited Egypt and Jordan, and in both these countries, where the social traditions are largely Arabic, it's the custom for families to own a home, which is added to vertically as the family grows through marriage.

You see this especially in Egypt, where the nearly-universal architectural style is a post-and-beam concrete skeleton, which appears unfinished, because the posts extend above the last completed level, with rebars exposed. This makes it fairly easy to add a storey, into which a recently married family member can start a household.

That's a cozy setup and obviously works nicely for family solidarity, intergenerational child care, and so forth, but it also means that in a terrible event like these earthquakes, the collapse of a building can wipe out a whole family at once.

My question is mainly whether this tradition exists in Turkey.
 
7,000 people dead. Freezing weather. Truly horrific I don't know what else to say.
 
mgidm86 said:
7,000 people dead. Freezing weather. Truly horrific I don't know what else to say.
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Yes, and from what I've heard so far, it's going to be worse and worse. It appears that a great many structures collapsed vertically, a very poor prospect for survivors.

On the slight bright side, it seems that groups ordinarily at odds are uniting in aid, though I suppose it's too much to hope that they stop and think about what that means.
 
bruto said:
Yes, and from what I've heard so far, it's going to be worse and worse. It appears that a great many structures collapsed vertically, a very poor prospect for survivors.

On the slight bright side, it seems that groups ordinarily at odds are uniting in aid, though I suppose it's too much to hope that they stop and think about what that means.
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Does that include Assad, the guy who used nerve gas on his own people?
 
I have an employee from Syria. The area hit in Turkey has a lot of Syrian refugees, including his parents and a lot of his family. All his family members lost their houses and have to live in tents on the streets. Since they are Syrian citizens, they're not allowed to leave the area and go to better places within Turkey. None of his family members are dead, but so far four of his friends are confirmed dead.

It's a very sad situation, hitting some of the most vulnerable people in the world.
 
Syria hasn't featured much in the news in the last couple of years, pandemic and Ukraine filling much of the airtime.

There was a map displayed of some of the various groups on the news I saw last night. It appears the Assad regime holds most of the country, but for some northern regions which are the last rebel holdouts, included those backed by Turkey, so it's a right mess.

A natural disaster is the last thing that country needed after more than a decade of war and with so many displayed people in that region already, I can see it getting much worse before there's any improvement.
 
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Official death toll is now over 9000. I suspect that there will also be many survivors of the quake who will die because of theterrible conditions and lack of relief.

ETA: was checking the BBC site for news:

Death toll rises to more than 11,200
We now believe more than 11,200 people have died following a massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday.

Turkish officials say 8,574 people have died in the country.

It's difficult to get figures from Syria, but we understand the number of confirmed deaths so far is 2,662.
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commandlinegamer said:
Syria hasn't featured much in the news in the last couple of years, pandemic and Ukraine filling much of the airtime.

There was a map displayed of some of the various groups on the news I saw last night. It appears the Assad regime holds most of the country, but for some northern regions which are the last rebel holdouts, included those backed by Turkey, so it's a right mess.

A natural disaster is the last thing that country needed after more than a decade of war and with so many displayed people in that region already, I can see it getting much worse before there's any improvement.
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Thinks in Syria will not improve until Assad is gone.
 
Death toll over 20'000.
Erdogan is asking the Turkish people to be pateint. Already rumors he will use the quake as an excuse for cancelling the up coming elections.
 
It's okay because it's the West's fault, as usual.

Syrian President al-Assad criticizes Western countries in first televised comments since Monday's earthquake

Assad told reporters that Western countries “have no regard for the human condition.” This comment is in line with statements heard from government officials and Syria’s state-run media, who have pinned the lack of humanitarian aid and hindered rescue equipment on US and EU sanctions.
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https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live...10-23-intl/h_84be5d5c70a0b901d5f800b6033fc97a
 
dudalb said:
Death toll over 20'000.
Erdogan is asking the Turkish people to be pateint. Already rumors he will use the quake as an excuse for cancelling the up coming elections.
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He should be worried. After the 1999 Turkey established a fund for earthquakes. Homeowners in Turkey pay an earthquake tax to set aside money in the event of a major quake.

In 2020, the wannabe Padasha said, "That money was spent where it needed to be spent. don’t feel the need to explain myself to anybody any further" when asked about why there wasn't money in the fund.

This may be what brings the resurgent Ottoman Emperor down.
 
Videos show Turkey's Erdogan boasted letting builders avoid earthquake codes

ISTANBUL — As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan struggles to defend his response to last Monday's devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake, videos from a few years back have emerged showing him hailing some of the housing projects that crumbled, killing thousands of people.

Critics say contractors were allowed to skip crucial safety regulations, increasing their profits but putting residents at risk.

The videos have fueled public outrage over slow efforts to help residents in the aftermath of the massive earthquake — the world's deadliest in over a decade — that killed more than 35,000 people in Turkey and neighboring Syria, and left many injured and without a home, food or heating in the middle of winter.

In one video, taken during a campaign stop ahead of Turkey's March 2019 local elections, Erdogan listed some of his government's top achievements — including new housing for the city of Kahramanmaras, also known as Maras, near the epicenter of last week's quake.

"We solved the problem of 144,156 citizens of Maras with zoning amnesty," Erdogan said, using his term for the construction amnesties handed out to allow contractors to ignore the safety codes that had been put on the books specifically to make apartment blocks, houses and office buildings more resistant to earthquakes.

Engineers and architects say the lack of safety features designed to absorb the shock of earthquakes likely contributed to the soaring death toll.
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All fakes, of course, I'm sure! :rolleyes:
 
I would bet a reasonable amoun of money that Erdogan will find a way to cancel the up coming elections.
 
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