Turkey turned its focus to reconstruction on Wednesday, encouraging those in earthquake-hit areas whose buildings were deemed safe to return home.
In opposition-controlled north-west Syria, already suffering from more than a decade of bombing, the earthquake left many families to fend for themselves amidst the rubble, with international aid slowly trickling in.
The death toll in both countries has risen to more than 41,000, and millions are in need of humanitarian aid, with many survivors left homeless in near-freezing temperatures, and rescues now few and far between.
Return home
In southern Turkey’s Hatay province, half of the buildings have collapsed, been heavily damaged or need to be demolished quickly, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said.
But the government has encouraged people to go home — if they can, based on government assessments.
“We want citizens to track the status of its buildings in the system online and return to buildings that receive safe construction reports from the Ministry of Urbanization in order to start getting back to normal,” Tourism Minister Nuri Ersoy told a news conference in Malatya, about 160 km from the quake’s epicenter. .
“Let’s quickly demolish what needs to be demolished and build safe houses,” tweeted Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s stock index rose nearly 10% on the stock market’s reopening after five days of closure because of the earthquake, with government measures to prop up equities appearing to be working, but analysts warned that sentiment was fragile.
Redemptions
Last night (14), Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan vowed to continue rescue and recovery efforts after nine people were pulled out of the rubble alive that day.
A 42-year-old woman was rescued from the rubble of a building in the southern Turkish city of Kahramanmaras on Wednesday, nearly 222 hours after a devastating earthquake struck the region, Turkish media reported.
But United Nations (UN) officials said the rescue phase was coming to an end, with the focus on shelter, food and education.
The Turkish toll was 35,418 dead, Erdogan said. More than 5,814 have died in Syria, according to a Reuters tally, from reports by Syrian state media and a UN agency.
In Syria, relief efforts have been hampered by a civil war that has fractured the country and divided regional and global powers. Turkey’s only border crossing into Syria was closed for days before UN trucks were allowed through.
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