February 10, 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake news

The Syrian government has approved sending aid into rebel-held territory in the northwest of the country, a statement said Friday, but officials provided no specific timeline. 

Syrian officials have repeatedly said they are “ready” to send help to the territories, but no aid from the government has reportedly entered the rebel-held areas since the earthquake on Monday.

More background: The delivery of urgent supplies to quake-hit areas of northern Syria has been complicated by a long-running civil war between opposition forces and the Syrian government, led by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is accused of killing his own people.

Two UN convoys carrying aid have entered the rebel-held northwest through the only authorized border crossing in Turkey, while Assad's government has received planeloads of aid from countries around the world.

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said on Wednesday that any aid Syria receives must go through the capital Damascus.

“The Syrian state is ready to allow aid to enter into all regions, provided that it does not reach terrorist armed groups,” he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said more than 141,000 rescue personnel are working on the ground in 10 earthquake-struck provinces in Turkey. 

"We have more than 141,000 personnel, including foreign teams, working on the ground in 10 provinces. The Disaster Management Agency and other institutions are offering tents, containers, and prefabricated buildings, so that they can meet the needs quickly," he said during a speech in the city of Malatya.

Erdogan said that Turkish institutions and organizations are providing hot meals to relief teams for the survivors of the earthquake through mobile kitchens and soup kitchens.

Erdogan also said those who had their own homes destroyed will receive 5,000 Turkish Lira ($265.50) per month in aid and those who have had rentals destroyed will get 2,000 Turkish Lira ($106.20) per month.

Monday's earthquake and aftershocks in Turkey and Syria have left more than 22,000 dead. The tragedy has surpassed numbers from other deadly earthquakes, including Japan's Fukushima disaster in 2011.

Families are grieving as they begin to bury their loved ones across the two countries.

While President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was facing the strongest opposition yet to his presidency in this upcoming election, the devastating earthquake could change the electoral equation for the Turkish strongman, who hopes an upcoming election will extend his rule well into a third decade, analysts say.

Many of the 10 hardest-hit provinces of the country’s south have traditionally supported him and his AK Party. Erdogan has been visiting impacted areas, consoling victims and pledging to rebuild the thousands of flattened homes. But there is disgruntlement with the government’s response in those areas, where some people complain that scores of bodies are yet to be collected, causing the stench of death to spread.

For Turkey’s rulers, quakes have been game changers in the past: In what later became a defining moment for Erdogan’s ascension to power, the 1999 quake – and the slow relief efforts that followed – only added to the sense of disillusionment many felt toward the nationalist, secularist state in power at the time, analysts say.

After the 1999 earthquake, the state “collapsed like a house of cards,” Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told CNN on Thursday.

This time around, the Turkish opposition is already speaking out about the government’s perceived shortcomings in dealing with the tragedy. Following a nationwide restriction on social media after the earthquake, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, said, “This insane palace government cut off social media communication.”

“As a result, crying for help is less heard,” he tweeted on Wednesday. “We know everything you’re trying to hide.”

With additional reporting by Yusuf Gezer in Iskenderun, Turkey.

John Morrison of the Fairfax County Fire Department in Virginia is one of over 150 search-and-rescue members deployed to Turkey through the United States Agency for International Development. His team, which has been around the world to assist with disasters, is currently searching the entire city of Adiyaman for earthquake survivors.

While his team has not found anyone alive in the rubble yet, he said he has previously seen victim rescues after even more than a week following an earthquake.

Since the quake in Turkey struck when many citizens were asleep, Morrison said that survivors could be wrapped up in blankets from their beds to help keep them warm in the cold temperatures.

Hypothermia is a big concern, he said, but his team has doctors ready to treat patients.

While it is a "widespread disaster," search-and-rescue members try to whittle down the task by conferring with local authorities and people on the street to see if they've heard any noise from under the rubble, he said.

The death toll following the earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria this week has climbed to at least 22,772, according to authorities.

In Turkey, the death toll has risen to at least 19,388 with 77,711 others reported injured, according to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  

The total number of deaths in Syria stands at 3,384 — including 2,037 in rebel-held areas in the northwest, according to the White Helmets civil defense group – and 1,347 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to Syrian state media.

The total number of injured people in Syria across all affected territories stands at 5,245, with 2,295 in government-controlled ares and 2,950 in rebel-held areas.

At least 82,956 people in Syria and Turkey were injured following the quakes, according to the Turkish president, the White Helmets and Syrian state media.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad criticized Western countries in his first televised comments since the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck parts of the country five days ago, Syrian state media showed.

Assad and his wife, Asma, visited different sites affected by the earthquake and visited survivors at a hospital in Aleppo, pictures on state-run news agency SANA showed.

Standing near a building destroyed by the 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.

The US says its sanctions are not imposed on humanitarian efforts, and on Friday, the US Treasury issued a “General License” for 180 days, which authorizes all earthquake relief-related transactions otherwise prohibited by sanctions regulations. The Syrian Foreign Ministry called this a measure a means to give a “false impressions of humanity,” SANA said.

Remember: Almost 11 million people have been affected by the disaster in Syria, the UN said. The death toll in Syria stands at least 3,384, including 2,037 in rebel-held areas in the northwest, according to the "White Helmets" civil defense group – and 1,347 deaths in government-controlled parts of Syria, according to Syrian state media. More than 5,000 people have been injured across all affected territories, according to authorities.

The delivery of urgent supplies to quake-hit areas of northern Syria has been complicated by a long-running civil war between opposition forces and Assad's government, who is accused of killing his own people. Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad says any aid it receives must go through the capital Damascus.

That leaves rebel-held areas reliant on aid groups including the UN, who has only been able to send two convoys since Monday, which is starkly different to Turkey, where 70 countries and 14 international organizations have promptly offered teams of rescuers, donations and aid as of Thursday.

At least 19,388 people have died in Turkey due to Monday's earthquake, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

There are also 77,711 people who were injured, he said during his speech in Malatya Friday. 

Turkish Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag said Friday that judicial investigations have started for builders in regions affected by Monday's deadly earthquake, according to Turkey's state media Anadolu. 

"Our chief public prosecutor's offices started everywhere their judicial investigations regarding these events," Bozdag said during a news conference.

Bozdag said 206 public prosecutors have been appointed by the country's Council of Judges and Prosecutors to manage judicial processes in earthquake-stricken areas, Anadolu reported. 

Bozdag also said necessary measures are being taken to arrest those responsible and to impose a ban on their international travel. 

Why did buildings collapse? USGS structural engineer Kishor Jaiswal told CNN Tuesday that Turkey has experienced significant earthquakes in the past, including a quake in 1999 which hit southwest Turke and killed more than 14,000 people. Because of this, he said, many parts of Turkey have regional building regulations to ensure construction projects can withstand these types of events.

But not all buildings have been built according to the modern Turkish seismic standard, Jaiswal said. Deficiencies in the design and construction, especially in older buildings, mean that many buildings could not withstand the severity of the shocks.

“If you are not designing these structures for the seismic intensity that they may face in their design life, these structures may not perform well,” said Jaiswal.

CNN's  Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Christian Edwards, Krystina Shveda and Henrik Pettersson contributed to this post.