Turkey

17 Feb 2023; MEMO: Ertugrul Gazi, the first Turkish-flagged floating storage and gasification unit (FSRU), has been put to work at full capacity to meet the demand for natural gas after the devastating earthquakes that hit the country on 6 February, Anadolu reports.

According to a statement by Turkish energy company BOTAS, teams are working around the clock to repair the damage in the gas mains transmission lines in the Kahramanmaras region after the earthquakes.

ISTANBUL, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Two Chinese search and rescue teams departed Türkiye Thursday as their mission to save earthquake survivors came to a close.

Footage from local media showed an 11-member team and a 60-member team greeted by officials from the Turkish Foreign Ministry before their departure.

The two teams, respectively from the southern Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan, had been based in the southern province of Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of dual earthquakes.

SAMANDAG, Turkey (AP) — Nearly two weeks after a massive earthquake leveled tens of thousands of buildings and displaced millions of people in Turkey and Syria, many are still struggling to fulfill their basic needs and some are bedding down in tents, factories, train cars and greenhouses.

People pushed from their homes in the disaster zone described a wide range of conditions: Some were able to find regular hot showers, while others feared freezing to death.

16 Feb 2023; MEMO: A young woman was pulled from the debris of a collapsed building 248 hours after an earthquake hit southern Turkiye, as hopes of finding more survivors fade, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Rescuers found Aleyna Olmez, 17, alive under the rubble in Dulkadiroglu district of Kahramanmaras province.

She was taken to a hospital for medical treatment.

16 Feb 2023; MEMO: Catastrophe modelling firm, Karen Clark & Company (KCC), said on Thursday it expects insured losses of $2.4 billion from the devastating dual Kahramanmaras earthquakes that hit Turkiye earlier this month.

The number of people killed by the deadliest earthquake in Turkiye's modern history has risen to 36,187, authorities said, Reuters reports.

ANKARA (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday urged Turkey to ratify the applications of Finland and Sweden to join the military organization, repeating his claim that the Nordic neighbors have done enough to satisfy Ankara’s demands that they crack down on extremism.

At a news conference in Ankara standing alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Stoltenberg also condemned the burning of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, at a protest in Sweden but he said that this is not illegal in Europe.

ANTAKYA, Turkey (AP) — Hamid Yakisikli has waited outside the pile of concrete that used to be his house since an earthquake devastated his home in the ancient city of Antakya. He and his two brothers have endured freezing conditions, in big jackets and wool hats, waiting for rescuers to retrieve the body of their mother, Fatma, from under the rubble.

Ever since the Feb. 6 earthquake decimated swaths of Turkey and Syria, survivors have gathered outside destroyed houses and apartments, refusing to leave.

14 Feb 2023; MEMO: Miracles continue as more survivors are pulled alive from the rubble nine days after strong earthquakes hit southern Turkiye, reports Anadolu Agency.

Two brothers, Baki Yeninar, 21, and Muhammed Enes Yeninar, 17, were rescued in the province of Kahramanmaras, where the quakes were centered, almost 200 hours later.

Baki said he held onto life by drinking protein powder.

15 Feb 2023; MEMO: Turkiye's Trade Ministry banned the export of mobile houses for three months to urgently meet the need for temporary shelter in the earthquake-hit southeast, local media reports.

According to a report, the ministry said the export ban on prefabricated and container homes will start on 15 February.

After the earthquake, 6,500 buildings collapsed and countless more were damaged, hundreds of thousands of people now lack safe housing.

13 Feb 2023; MEMO: The United Nations has said that the death toll from last week's earthquakes in northwest Syria and southern Turkiye is likely to be over 56,000.

The most current death toll is over 36,000, with at least 4,614 people dead in regime-held and opposition-held parts of Syria and at least 31,643 dead in Turkey.