Lift sanctions so we can help, say aid agencies after Turkey-Syria earthquake

by Rebecca Paveley

10 February 2023

ALAMY

Aerial photo of destruction in Hatay, southern Turkey, on Tuesday

AID agencies and Churches have called for international sanctions to be lifted to help rescue efforts in the wake of the earthquakes that devastated parts of Syria and Turkey on Monday, killing thousands of people and destroying homes and infrastructure.

Economic sanctions had been imposed on Syria, owing to its violent repression of civilians, but the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), the World Council of Churches, and aid organisations, including the Red Crescent, have urged that they should be lifted, to speed up the arrival of aid and rescue equipment.

The MECC said in a statement: “We urge the immediate lifting of sanctions on Syria and allowing access to all materials so sanctions may not turn into a crime against humanity.”

International aid organisations are rushing to get support to the injured and those left homeless by the 7.8-magnitude quake in the early hours of Monday, while rescuers are still trying to save people trapped beneath the rubble of thousands of buildings in south-eastern Turkey and north-western Syria. People reported hearing desperate calls for help from under the rubble in places where rescuers had not yet arrived. By Friday afternoon, the death count had reached more than 22,000.

The earthquake in Syria has wreaked destruction on a population that has already experienced more than a decade of war. Millions were already living in makeshift homes in camps in freezing temperatures. Mark Kaye, of the International Rescue Committee, described it as a “crisis within a crisis within a crisis”.

The earthquake is one of the most violent to hit the region in more than a century. A second powerful tremor — at 7.7, almost as large as the first — struck several hours later, and threatened to overwhelm early rescue efforts.

The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that it was the worst disaster for the country since 1939, when an earthquake killed more than 32,000 people, and injured more than 100,000. Vital infrastructure has been destroyed. He has declared a three-month state of emergency on provinces affected by the disaster.

Pope Francis has expressed his grief at the loss of life and devastation. At his weekly audience on Wednesday in the Vatican, he said: “I am praying for them with emotion and I wanted to say that I am close to these people, to the families of the victims and everyone who is suffering from this devastating disaster.

ALAMYVolunteers distribute aid to people in Antakya, southern Turkey, on Wednesday

“I thank those who are offering help, and encourage everyone to show solidarity with these countries, some of which have already been battered by a long war.”

The Chaldean Bishop of Aleppo, Mar Antoine Audo, told the Vatican news agency Fides that the quake was a “new tremendous bomb, lethal and known, which falls on us”.

Aleppo’s residents were, he said, without water, electricity, or heating, and people were out on the streets or in cars in freezing temperatures, fearful that a further tremor could strike. Some have taken refuge in a convent.

He said that the Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo, the Most Revd Georges Masri, had been pulled alive from the rubble in Aleppo, but his vicar was still missing. The Greek Orthodox cathedral has also been damaged.

In Turkey, the Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, the Rt Revd Paolo Bizzeti, reported that the cathedral in Iskenderun had collapsed, and churches of the Syrian Orthodox and Orthodox communities in that city had also been destroyed.

Speaking to the Vatican daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, he said that people were united together in suffering, and that local communities on Monday “celebrated the eucharist; people are praying, and their faith is a great help”.

The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote on Twitter on Monday that “All those who have been so traumatically bereaved, and all those involved in rescue efforts, are in my prayers.”

The Revd Yuce Kabakci is from Turkey, and is now Assistant Curate at St Wulfram’s, in Grantham. He has expressed his horror at the devastation. Although he did not have family in the affected area of Turkey, he said, he was in touch with friends who had family missing.

“There were warnings of another earthquake,” he wrote on Twitter, “but no one did anything to make buildings safe for people; there are thousands of homes that are sub-standard. Profit was put above safety.”

A statement from 200 Roman Catholic delegates from Europe, meeting in Prague for the RC Continental Assembly of the Synod in Europe, said: “The suffering of the population have [sic] profoundly affected and touched our souls. With great sympathy, the Churches in Europe are close to the populations afflicted by the earthquake, renewing our prayers and assisting in every possible way to deal with the emergency.”