Stunning rescues in earthquake zone even as hopes of more dim fast
CBSNov 24, 2022
Turkey-Syria Earthquake: Death Toll Passes 41K; Aid Enters Newly-Opened Border Crossing
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Image copyright: Reuters [via Washington Post]
The Facts
One of the largest earthquakes to hit the region in nearly a century — with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale — has killed thousands of people, destroyed infrastructure, and leveled thousands of buildings after striking a week ago in southern Turkey and northern Syria.
A second earthquake aftershock, registering a magnitude of 7.7 on the Richter scale, in the same location near Gaziantep was also reported last Monday afternoon, less than 12 hours after the initial quake. With the numbers in flux and rising, total fatalities have surpassed 41K as of Wednesday evening local time.
The Spin
Narrative A
This is the worst crisis to hit southern Turkey and northern Syria since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011. Besides the fact that this region is inundated with refugees, the earthquake comes in the middle of winter which is only compounding the suffering of those who were already suffering. The global community must step up quickly to help the people of Turkey and Syria.
Narrative B
Sadly, many impacts of this earthquake could have been lessened if only Turkish authorities had dealt seriously with supervising urban development in quake-prone areas, enforcing the mandatory earthquake-resistant design codes to buildings its legislation approved in 2000. There are two major fault lines along the Anatolian Plate, and earthquake mitigation is vital given the likelihood of catastrophic tremors.
Pro-establishment narrative
The US should not and will not work with a government that has killed hundreds of thousands of its own people with barrel bombs, starvation sieges, and chemical weapons. US sanctions on Syria have a very minor effect on aid delivery, as such areas are excluded from the sanctions which largely target individuals and companies, and any possible hindrances have now been lifted. The US will do everything it can via the NGOs with which it has worked for years to provide Syrians with aid, but it will not assist Bashar al-Assad, Syria's dictator, after he destroyed his own country.
Establishment-critical narrative
Though the US has lifted some sanctions, this is largely a superficial move to avoid criticism of its brutal sanctions regime. If sanctions weren't obstructing aid delivery, why did the US lift some of them? All routes from Turkey into the country's north have been destroyed, making it even more necessary for Western governments to work directly with the Syrian state to help alleviate this crisis. The West must lift all of these cruel sanctions.
