Böll.Global 14 | Complicated and politicized: Earthquake Relief in Turkey and Northern Syria

The devastating earthquake and numerous aftershocks in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria have left at least 50,000 dead. Survivors are holding out in schools, gymnasiums and tents, in cold, snow and rain. In Turkey, some 25 million people in ten provinces have been affected. Entire cities lie in ruins; critical infrastructure such as roads, airports and hospitals have been destroyed. In northwestern Syria, the population, long-suffering from eleven years of war, was already living in houses destroyed by shells before the quakes; 5.3 million Syrians have now been made homeless in addition.

The Turkish government's crisis management has been sharply criticized; in the first few days in particular, too few rescue teams arrived in the region too late and with too little equipment in many places. Now, a month later, the tents of the Turkish Civil Protection Agency AFAD have still not reached all regions and in many places, there is still no drinking water supply.

Reports of confiscated relief supplies from the pro-Kurdish HDP party and arrests of journalists reporting on the ground about developments in the earthquake zone show how politicized the earthquake relief is becoming.

In northwestern Syria, the situation is no better. Particularly vulnerable is the province of Idlib, which is largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and is also home to many dissidents and activists. There, the first shipments of United Nations humanitarian aid arrived only four days after the earthquake. Only a fraction of the needed aid has reached the region so far.

According to the Syrian rescue organization White Helmets, there is still a lack of heavy equipment to clear the rubble and recover bodies. The Syrian regime's requirement that humanitarian aid be delivered through Damascus complicates humanitarian access to so-called opposition areas. At the same time, President Bashar al-Asad is using the earthquake and related humanitarian emergency as an excuse to push for normalization in relations with states in the region, as demonstrated by his recent state visit to Oman or the visit of the Egyptian foreign minister to Damascus. The U.S. and the EU have temporarily eased sanctions and the latter has even established an airlift to Damascus.
The civilian population remains largely on its own in the affected areas and tries to help itself past the administrations and confiscations. Local civil society organizations and the civil society self-help structures that have grown in some areas in northern Syria are providing support. A task force set up by the German Foreign and Interior Ministries is working to enable Germans with Turkish families to temporarily take in their relatives affected by the earthquakes. However, bureaucratic hurdles remain high, and Syrians are left out altogether.

What is the situation on the ground, which groups of people are particularly vulnerable?
What aid is acutely needed, and how should it be provided? Which actors should be supported as a priority?
What will be the long-term consequences of the earthquake, what needs to be done in the long term?
What has the German government done so far, what should it focus on in the future?

These and other questions will be discussed by:
Julia Bartmann, deputy office manager Heinrich Böll Foundation in Istanbul.
Sara Stachelhaus, Program Coordinator in the Syria Program for the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Beirut
Neda Noraie-Kia, Refugee and Migration Officer, Europe, Heinrich Böll Foundation Thessaloniki
Representative of the White Helmets, Syria

Contact: Louisa Reeh, reeh@boell.de

Press contact:
Heinrich Böll Foundation
Laura Hofmann, Press Spokesperson
hofmann@boell.de, 
+49 (0)30 285 34-202