The death toll from the earthquake in Turkey and Syria is now at 20,000 and counting. The United States government is “committed” to providing aid “on both sides” of the Turkey-Syria border. But in an area devastated by civil war, where the dictator in Syria uses humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip and where Turkey is already hosting more than 3.5 million refugees, no amount of international money or social media empathy can guarantee people there will ever recover.
No earthquake or natural disaster recognizes national boundaries.
No earthquake or natural disaster recognizes national boundaries. The outpouring of support from people around the world shows that in a time of crisis, humanity is easily able to transcend national boundaries. But the politics of disaster recovery, the slow churn of bureaucracy, is once again getting in the way of saving people’s lives.
While Turkey has the tools and resources to focus on a rescue mission, people in Syria’s north will soon be forced to switch to recovering human remains.
It’s no wonder that Turkish President Recep Erdogan is struggling in his personal and practical response to two devastating earthquakes that toppled thousands of buildings, leaving millions without basic services across 10 provinces. Declaring a national state of emergency and deploying federal troops is not enough to make up for regional fuel shortages, the lack of trained local rescue teams, and what people inside Turkey are calling a slow government response.
In a visit Wednesday to a town where entire blocks have disappeared, Erdogan acknowledged “some issues” with the response and transportation, but promised that all who were left homeless would have new housing within a year. It’s a bold policy response to the wave of public anger, and no doubt influenced by Erdogan’s own re-election in three months.
Effective disaster response and recovery often comes down to mundane logistics: for example, knowing how many tents…
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