“Providing Aid: Canada Ready to Assist After Deadly Earthquake Strikes Turkey and Syria”

Canada stands ready to provide aid after a devastating earthquake struck Turkey and Syria, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday after authorities in those countries reported more than 2,500 people died and thousands more were injured.

Rescue workers and local residents searched the rubble of collapsed buildings for survivors, and officials said the death toll could be rising.

Trudeau said the reports and images from Turkey and Syria were “devastating”.

“Canada stands ready to provide assistance,” he wrote in a statement. “Our thoughts are with everyone affected by these devastating earthquakes and our hearts are with those who have lost loved ones.”

Global Affairs Canada did not immediately respond Monday to requests for comment about whether Canadians in Turkey and Syria were affected.

The federal Conservatives would “support any effort by Canadians and the Canadian government to provide assistance,” Conservative foreign policy critic Michael Chong said in a tweet.

The foreign policy critic of the NDP, Heather McPherson, called on the federal government to provide humanitarian aid immediately.

The quake, centered in Turkey’s southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, brought more misery to a region marred by more than a decade of civil war in Syria on either side of the border.

Thousands of buildings have reportedly collapsed in a wide area stretching from the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkey’s Diyarbakir, more than 330 kilometers northeast.

Moutaz Adham, Oxfam Canada’s Syria country director, said the number of people killed and injured by the Syrian quake was changing rapidly.

“We see families searching for their missing loved ones left under the rubble of collapsed buildings. We know that people, even those whose buildings have not collapsed, do not feel safe to return,” he said in a phone interview from Damascus.

“The earthquake comes on top of a very dire humanitarian situation in Syria.”

Adham said financial help was needed to respond to the situation, noting that the quake also came during a severe winter that could complicate relief efforts.

Majd Khalaf, a Montreal-based coordinator for White Helmets – a Syrian civil defense organization – said many buildings that collapsed had already been damaged during the ongoing war, making them more vulnerable to the quake.

“Our teams are responding now… They’re digging in the rubble to save lives,” he said. “It really is a huge catastrophe.”

Huge areas of northwestern Syria have lost power and internet connections due to the quake, he added.

He said his organization is asking the international community for immediate assistance with equipment to help with the rescue effort.

“There are four million refugees (in Syria) near the Turkish border, which has complicated the evacuation and White Helmet response,” he said. “They live in camps in terrible conditions, especially in winter.”

The United Nations estimates that around 6.9 million people have been displaced inside Syria as a result of the war.

The US Geological Survey measured the quake on Monday with a magnitude of 7.8 at a depth of 18 kilometers. Hours later, a 7.5 magnitude tremor struck more than 100 kilometers away. According to a USGS seismologist, the second tremor was considered an aftershock because it occurred on the same fault line as the first.

The region of Turkey affected by the earthquake lies on major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. About 18,000 people died in 1999 in similarly powerful earthquakes in north-west Turkey.

– With files from Jordan Omstead and The Associated Press

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on February 6, 2023.

Maan Alhmidi and Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press

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