Turkey

ANKARA, Feb 13 (NNN-AMNA) – Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias, visited Türkiye yesterday, in a show of support as massive earthquakes hitting the country have left more than 24,000 killed.

“We will continue to do our best to overcome difficult times, both at bilateral and the level of the European Union,” Dendias said, in a joint press statement with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, in the quake-hit southern province of Hatay.

ANKARA/DAMASCUS, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from the twin earthquakes that rocked Türkiye and Syria on Feb. 6 has climbed to 29,605 and 1,414 respectively as of Sunday evening.

The number of wounded, meanwhile, rose to over 80,000 in Türkiye and 2,349 in Syria, according to official figures.

FAULTY CONSTRUCTION

Türkiye has issued arrest warrants for 134 suspects involved in the faulty construction of buildings that collapsed in the earthquakes, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Sunday.

13 Feb 2023; MEMO: Türkiye's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines has resumed flights from Hatay Airport in the country’s earthquake-hit southern region.

"Our flights from Hatay Airport have resumed," Yahya Ustun, Turkish Airlines’ senior vice president for media relations, said on Twitter.

Flights made between Feb. 13-19 will require advance reservation to facilitate the evacuation process, Ustun added.

Passengers without reservations will also be accepted in the case of vacant seats, he noted.

13 Feb 2023; MEMO: A Turkish aid team managed to reach earthquake victims in southern Türkiye by following a dog when they got lost.

After setting out for a village in Goksun district of Kahramanmaras province, the team chose an alternate route as the road was closed due to snow and rocks. After a while, they lost their way and decided to follow a dog that approached them. Thanks to the guidance of the dog, they found the village and delivered the aid.

12 Feb 2023; MEMO: Turkish police have detained 12 people deemed responsible for the collapse of buildings in Turkiye's south-eastern provinces affected by this week's earthquake, as authorities launch a series of investigations over a leading cause of the structures' instability.

12 Feb 2023; MEMO: A border gate between long-feuding Turkey and Armenia has been opened for the first time in 35 years to allow aid for victims of the devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey, state-owned Anadolu news agency and a diplomat said.

Turkey's special envoy for Armenia, Serdar Kilic, tweeted photos of trucks passing through the Alican checkpoint at the Turkish side of the Aras river separating the two countries.

ADIYAMAN, Turkey (AP) — Thousands who survived the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria a week ago are pondering what comes next. While many have been evacuated from the devastated region, others are staying by wrecked homes and as the search for missing loved ones continues.

Rescuers found a woman alive 174 hours after the first quake struck, but reports of rescues were coming less often as the time since the quake reaches the limits of the human body’s ability to survive without water, especially in freezing temperatures.

12 Feb 2023; MEMO: Palestinian artist, Abrar Sabbah, who received appreciation for her drawing against the provocative cartoon of the French Charlie Hebdo magazine mocking the earthquake disaster in Turkiye, stated she wanted to convey a message of support for Turkiye.

French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, has sparked outrage with a cartoon it published mocking Turkiye after two deadly earthquakes hit the country on Monday.

ANTAKYA, Turkey (AP) — When war broke out in Ukraine, Aydin Sisman’s relatives there fled to the ancient city of Antakya, in a southeastern corner of Turkey that borders Syria.

They may have escaped one disaster, but another found them in their new home.

They were staying with Sisman’s Ukrainian mother-in-law when their building collapsed last Monday as a 7.8 magnitude earthquake leveled much of Antakya and ravaged the region in what some in Turkey are calling the disaster of the century.

ANTAKYA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish justice officials targeted more than 130 people allegedly involved in shoddy and illegal construction methods as rescuers extricated more survivors, including a pregnant woman and two small children, six days after a pair of earthquakes collapsed thousands of buildings.

The death toll from the 7.8 magnitude and 7.5 magnitude quakes that hit southeastern Turkey and northern Syria nine hours apart on Feb. 6 rose to 33,179 on Sunday and was certain to keep increasing as search teams locate more bodies in the rubble.