Since the first earthquake hit Turkey and Syria just over a week ago, the differences between the countries have been impossible to overlook. Turkey has received offers of help from 95 nations, according to the authorities, and has managed to arrive with large machines in many places despite colossal destruction. Several of the countries that contributed to Syria are in their own crises. 80 percent of the early rescue work was also carried out by hand. The White Helmets have previously complained to news that the West has “turned its back” on them. Now they say that there is no longer any hope of finding people alive. The white helmets promise they will control the area where they were involved in rescue work last time. Photo: WHITE HELMETS / Reuters – From our interactions, there are no more survivors, but we are trying to carry out final checks at all the places where we are involved, says leader Raed al Saleh to Reuters. The group has rescue workers spread across the rebel-held parts of the region, where entire neighborhoods and villages have been razed to the ground. To date, 37,000 deaths have been reported as a result of the earthquake. A great many of these are listed in Turkey. There is probably a large dark figure. There are also many millions who have survived. Among the victims are 7 million children, according to the UN. In Syria, more roads into the country can provide greater capacity to meet the enormous need for aid. In Syria too, many survivors have been rescued from the ruins. The picture is from the days after the disaster. Photo: The white helmets Status in the Syrian war The war in Syria has been going on for 12 years, between the forces of President Bashar al-Assad and several opposition groups. The Assad family’s authoritarian regime has been in power in Syria for over 40 years. When Bashar al-Assad took over in 2000, many Syrians waited for democratic reforms, but gradually the regime chose to go the opposite way. Power was given to fewer people than before, and often people of the same religious faith (Alawites, which are a subgroup of Shia Islam). There has long been dissatisfaction about this among many Sunni Muslims, due to increasing poverty and discrimination from the Assad government. In 2011, demonstrations broke out over large parts of Syria, which were severely suppressed. These are part of what is known as the Arab Spring, and are among the triggering causes of the war. In 2014, the terrorist organization The Islamic State (IS) declared its religious rule over large areas in Syria and Iraq, and fought to maintain these until the end of 2019, when the last strongholds were declared defeated. A number of major world powers have intervened in the conflict, both in this period and afterwards, because Syria is strategically important for many of them. Western countries have provided some humanitarian aid, which the UN says 70 percent of Syrians need as a result of the war. At the same time, the USA has seen a hard limit for international organizations when it comes to building up that war-ravaged country. (Source: UN association and UN envoy to Syria, 2023) UN agreement on border crossings Syria and the UN have entered into an agreement that two new border crossings to the country will be opened, so that emergency aid can be transported to the earthquake victims. The announcement came after the head of emergency aid at the UN, Martin Griffiths, met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus. The UN’s Security Council decided in 2014 that emergency aid to the rebel-controlled areas in the north-west of the country should be brought in via four border crossings. Two of these are to Turkey, one to Jordan and one to Iraq. This photo in the presidential office of Assad shows a meeting between him and the head of emergency aid at the UN, Martin Griffiths (v). Photo: AP Since 2021, there has only been one open border crossing, in Bab al-Hawa. Russia, which is a close ally of the Assad regime, used its right of veto in the Security Council to close them in Jordan and Iraq. In 2021, Russia and China cooperated to close one in Turkey. The two new crossings that the Assad regime has now agreed to open are in Bab al-Salam and al-Ra’ee. The agreement only lasts for three months. Protesters in the ruins of houses in Atareb, Syria. The sign reads: “The UN is a partner of Bashar Assad and kill Syrians”. Photo: Hussein Malla / AP Refuses to let in aid from regime-controlled areas The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says Assad is open to driving emergency aid into the rebel-controlled areas in Syria. The rebels in the Al Qaeda-affiliated group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have refused to accept such help, and demand that everything be brought in from Turkey, which is in its own crisis. The UN says it is urgent to get food, medicines and other emergency aid to several million people who have been affected by the earthquake. Many of them are internally displaced from other areas in Syria, and had poor living conditions before the disaster happened. Raed al Saleh, who leads the White Helmets, is critical of the UN’s agreement with the Assad regime. Photo: ABDULAZIZ KETAZ / AFP Saleh from The White Helmets is critical of the agreement, among other things, because it gives Assad authority over emergency aid supplies that enter the country. – This is shocking, and we are dismayed by the way the UN is behaving, he says to Reuters, and believes Assad has achieved a political gain. To NTB, Norway’s UN ambassador, Mona Juul, describes the decision as good news. – Unhindered humanitarian access to all people who need it is the key to saving lives after the earthquake. Many Syrians are homeless and sleeping in the streets, says Benedicte Hafskjold from the Church’s Emergency Aid. The ticket is from the city of Hatay. Photo: AFP Many survivors to help Benedicte Hafskjold is the Church Aid’s country director for Syria, and is now helping earthquake victims in the second largest city in Syria, regime-controlled Aleppo. – It is clear that the rescue work in some parts of Syria has been unclear. There has been a limit to what one can do. We get messages when we are in different places that people are still missing and that it is assumed that they are under construction piles, she says to news. Benedicte Hafskjold is country director for Syria in the Church’s Aid. In the area controlled by the Assad government, 1,414 deaths have been reported. Where the rebels are in control, at least 4,400 have been reported dead. – The governing powers only go with what has been confirmed, but one can assume, differ, that the number is higher. In the future, the aid workers focus on the most basic needs, according to Hafskjold. These are access to water, food and a place to sleep until they have something more permanent. She says they have seen people sleeping in parks and on the streets. – There will be several thousand homeless people who need a place to live, and that will be the big job at the same time as building up infrastructure, water systems, sewage. This is also destroyed. – There are such huge needs that came out of the blue, overnight, so there is a lot of pressure and it is very difficult to be able to meet the needs we see.
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