ANKARA: For the thousands of individuals rendered homeless by the earthquake that occurred last Monday in Turkey and Syria, hope appeared to be waning (February 6). On Monday, the number of fatalities from the catastrophic earthquakes surpassed 34,000.
Turkish authorities tried to maintain order around the disaster area and started legal action over collapsed structures as rescuers searched through the wreckage for survivors following one of the region's greatest disasters in a century that struck Turkey and Syria.
In the wake of the earthquake, the quality of construction in a nation that is situated on many seismic fault lines has been brought into stark relief. As many as 131 suspects have been named as being responsible for the collapse of part of the thousands of buildings that have been leveled in the 10 affected regions, according to Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay.
For the first time in twenty years, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's political future is truly in jeopardy as he gets ready for his national election. The President responded to inquiries about his handling of the earthquake by promising that the government will deal with looters harshly.
Locals and assistance workers from nearby cities reported deteriorating security situations as well as frequent reports of burglaries at abandoned buildings and businesses. Business owners in Antakya, one of the hardest affected cities in southern Turkey, vacated their stores on Sunday to stop products from being taken by looters.
As hundreds of thousands of people were rendered homeless by the tremors, the death toll kept rising amid massive destruction and extreme cold. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria on February 6 is still being investigated, and rescuers are working against the clock to free any suspected trapped victims from the wreckage of the buildings.
The likelihood of discovering more survivors among the thousands of destroyed structures in the region's towns and cities is dwindling, though. In Kahramanmaras, Turkey, 5,000 people have been interred in mass graves. A pine forest was cleared for the mass graves, according to the India Today team in Turkey. In addition, only a tiny wooden stub serves as a grave marker instead of a tombstone.
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