'Continued international support for Türkiye, Syria crucial': Türkiye's UN envoy

By Zehra Nur Duz

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye's new representative to the UN stressed the importance of international aid for Türkiye and Syria in the wake of last month’s powerful earthquakes that left over 45,000 people dead.

“The continued international support, including through UN for Türkiye and Syria, will be crucial,” Sedat Onal said at a UN Security Council meeting on the recent situation in Syria on Tuesday.

Turkish and Syrian people are faced with the overwhelming consequences of one of the most devastating earthquakes in history, Onal said.

Türkiye has been trying to fulfill the enormous task of addressing many dimensions, including disaster and urgency, humanitarian assistance and recovery in an area larger in size than Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark combined with around 14 million inhabitants, he said.

“While grappling with these challenges in our own country, we continue to do our best to facilitate delivery of humanitarian aid to the Syrian people,” Onal said.

“We have already repaired the roads leading to Bab al-Hawa border gate, which were damaged … by the earthquake. We have also made available Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Rai border gates for the transfer of desperately needed UN aid faster and in greater quantities to the most affected areas,” the Turkish envoy said.

Since the quakes jolted the two countries, a total of 456 UN aid trucks have passed these border crossings, delivering essential relief items to millions of Syrians, he said.

“Maintaining a scaled-up UN response through these crossings as long as needed will be critically important to meet the needs in Syria in the most expedited, effective, and efficient manner,” he added.

The death toll from the devastating earthquakes that struck Türkiye has risen to 45,089, the country’s disaster management agency said early Wednesday.

On Feb. 6, magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes struck 11 provinces – Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Hatay, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.

More than 13 million people in Türkiye have been affected by the quakes as well as many in northwestern Syria.