Turkey-Syria earthquakes death toll passes 15,000

“The situation is very bad,” said Mohammed Farhan Khalid, the leader of a team of Pakistani rescuers in the shattered southeastern city of Adiyaman, who compared the Turkish earthquakes to the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir that killed tens of thousands. “More rescue and relief is required.”

As foreign rescuers arrive, Turkish earthquake survivors scramble for aid

In the past day, the death toll in Turkey — which sustained the majority of the fatalities so far — rose by some 3,500 to at least 12,873. The full extent of the disaster may not be clear for weeks, however, given the scale of the damage, with entire neighborhoods reduced to ruins. Already, it ranks as the world’s deadliest earthquake disaster in more than a decade.

At least three U.S. citizens were among those killed in southeastern Turkey, the State Department said Wednesday.

During a Wednesday visit near the epicenter of the largest quake, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged citizens to be patient, and pledged to rebuild the many shattered towns and cities within a year — a tough ask when the government’s latest estimate on the number of collapsed buildings is more than 6,400. He also said that the Turkish government would offer 10,000 Turkish lira, or around $530, to families, although the time frame and eligibility criteria of that aid were not immediately clear.

Washington Post journalists in southern Turkey, where temperatures dipped to the 20s overnight, saw survivors scuffle for tents distributed by aid agencies and scramble for blankets. Families who had missing loved ones sifted through the debris without assistance, with heavy equipment arriving days after the temblors struck.

Across the border in Syria, rescue efforts have been hampered by the aftereffects of a civil war that has left the country divided into government and rebel-controlled areas, although United Nations officials are hopeful that humanitarian aid deliveries will resume Thursday via a corridor through Turkey.

“We’re hearing that the road is opening. We do have a possibility hopefully to access the border,” Muhannad Hadi, the U.N. humanitarian affairs agency’s regional coordinator for Syria, said at a briefing. “We have a glimpse of hope there that the road is accessible and we can reach the people.”

In government-held parts of Syria, state media reported that at least 1,262 people had been killed and 2,285 injured. Rescuers in rebel-held northwestern Syria reported early Thursday that more than 1,900 were dead and 2,950 people injured, a tally they expect to rise sharply in coming days as many families remain buried beneath the rubble.

Turkish residents struggle to access Twitter in earthquake aftermath

Access to social media platforms Twitter and TikTok was restricted for some Turkish users on Wednesday. Internet-monitoring group NetBlocks later stated that Twitter services were restored after Turkish policymakers met with Twitter officials.

Ankara has previously cracked down on social media companies in the wake of disasters or periods of political scandal or unrest. Erdogan is facing an election in a few months and recovering from the earthquakes will be a major test of his two-decade grip on power. Even before the earthquakes, the country was grappling with historically high inflation and economic hardship that has dampened his popularity among voters.

Meral Aksener, a right-wing politician who founded the rival Iyi Party, or Good Party, denounced what she characterized as apparent censorship of social media at a time when it was being used by citizens as a vital means of conveying news about earthquake victims.

Vice President Fuat Oktay attributed the outage to technical issues and noted that other social media sites were still available.

Zeynep Karatas in Adiyaman, Turkey, and Paulina Villegas, Naomi Nix and Anumita Kaur in Washington contributed to this report.