Turkey’s Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, has said that the death toll from this month’s devastating earthquake in Turkey has risen to 43,556. The first earthquake on 6 February was followed by 7,930 aftershocks, which damaged more than 600,000 apartments and 150,000 business premises. Also on Monday, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck Turkey’s southern province of Hatay and northern Syria, killing six people and injuring nearly 300 others.
Recent tremors were centered near Antakya, a southern Turkish city, and were felt in neighboring countries such as Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. The incident occurred just two weeks after the deadliest earthquake in modern Turkish history, which killed thousands. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake was the deadliest this decade, caused by more than 100 km of rupture between the Anatolian and Arabian plates, with its epicenter located at a depth of 18 km on the East Anatolian Fault, about 26 km east of Nurdagi.
According to the US Geological Survey, since 1970, only three earthquakes have been recorded above 6.0 on the Richter scale in the region. The recent earthquake is the sixth deadliest natural disaster of this century after the 2005 earthquake that killed at least 73,000 people in Pakistan.
India has provided aid to Turkey and Syria after the earthquake claimed thousands of lives. The Government of India launched Operation Dost to provide assistance to the earthquake-affected area, including sending emergency relief materials, life-saving medicines and equipment, search and rescue personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), specially trained dog squads , includes drilling machines. and other essential items. Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted about India’s role in the Operation Dost aid programme, saying, “India is providing aid to both the countries in the spirit of its age-old tradition of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.”