On February 6, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on the international community to help Syria and Turkey deal with the aftermath of the earthquake.
“We are counting on the international community to assist the thousands of affected families, many of whom were already in dire need of humanitarian assistance,” Guterres said in a statement on the UN website.
He noted that the United Nations would also provide the necessary assistance.
On the night of February 6, seismologists recorded an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7 near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, located near the Syrian border. Several dozen aftershocks followed. In the afternoon there was another earthquake of magnitude 7.6.
According to the latest data, almost 1.5 thousand people died in Turkey, 8.5 thousand citizens were injured. In Syria, the number of victims of the earthquake has already exceeded 400 people, more than 1 thousand were injured.
There is no official data on the dead or injured Russian citizens. However, for Russian tourists who are in Turkey, on February 6, two hotlines were opened at once.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to Turkish and Syrian Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Bashar al-Assad. In addition, in telephone conversations with the heads of state, he confirmed his readiness to provide assistance.
Turkish political scientist Kerim Has, in an interview with Izvestia, pointed out that from the crisis in both Turkey and Syria, the consequences of the earthquake will be severe from an economic point of view.
