Turkey-Syria Earthquake: Death Toll Surpasses 35,000

• As rescue operations wind down in Turkey
• UN demands more aid access in Syria

As search and rescue teams began winding down their work on Monday amid diminishing prospects of recovering more people alive from the rubble, the death toll from the catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria has climbed over 35,000.

This is as UN aid officials push for more aid access to rebel-controlled north-western Syria, where only one crossing from Turkey is open at present.

According to reports, the focus is now on the humanitarian situation in Syria where, according to some estimates, millions of people are homeless through a combination of the earthquake and the long-running civil war.

At the centre of the issues compounding the crisis in rebel-controlled Idlib are the complicated arrangements for humanitarian deliveries to the Syrian region which operate under a mandate from the UN security council through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing.
With rescue operations winding down in Turkey, the UN is now demanding extra border crossings into north-west Syria amid diminishing prospects of finding survivors

To cushion the suffering of victims, massive tents have been set up as temporary shelters for people left homeless as rescue operations continue in Harim,  Idlib province, on Syria’s border with Turkey.

There has long been pressure to open other crossings to reach Idlib, but such moves have been vetoed by Russia and China who claim it undermines the sovereignty of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus.

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, was urging the security council to authorise the opening of new cross-border aid points between Turkey and Syria, but it was unclear whether that would overcome past objections.

Before a security council meeting on the crisis, however, diplomats said no draft resolution had yet been circulated.

Syria has not reported an updated death toll since Friday, so the true number is likely higher. Hopes are dwindling of finding many more survivors, and on the ground, there is a sense that the rescue mission will soon end.

The Syrian Civil Defence Force, or White Helmets, which operates in rebel-held areas of the country, has told the BBC that the group’s search efforts are winding down. But tens of thousands of rescuers continued their search overnight across affected areas in Turkey and Syria.

The seven-month-old baby, Hamza, was saved on Saturday, and footage from local authorities showed rescuers cheering and hugging one another.

A separate video from the Turkish Health ministry showed a small girl in a neck brace looking around as she was carried on a stretcher in the same province later on Sunday morning.

And footage showed a father and daughter being pulled from a building in Hatay. “He wants two cups of good tea,” one of the rescuers said.

Thousands of buildings collapsed during the earthquake, raising questions about whether the natural disaster’s impact was made worse by human failings.

Turkiye’s President Erdogan has admitted shortcomings in the response, but, during one visit to a disaster zone earlier in the week, appeared to blame fate. “Such things have always happened,” he said, adding; “It’s part of destiny’s plan.”

Meanwhile, officials said they have issued 113 arrest warrants in connection with the construction of buildings that collapsed, with 12 people taken into custody, including contractors.

Similarly, rescuers in Syria have criticised the international response to the disaster, with the UN’s Relief Chief Martin Griffiths saying the world has “failed the people in north-west Syria”.

“They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived”, he said.