Cyprus-Forum.com

[Lit]

Turkey will accept offers of aid from foreign countries to cope with the aftermath of the Van earthquake, after initially declining offers of help.

Officials said that, with more than 2,000 buildings destroyed, there was an urgent need for accommodation.

The death toll from the disaster stood at 461 but the Red Crescent fears hundreds are still trapped under rubble, feared dead.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15457897

[Lit]

For some, the poor planning in Van and Ecris amounts to criminal negligence.

"When we look at the wreckage, we see how the material used is of bad quality," Erdogan said. "We see that people pay the price for concrete that virtually turned to sand, or for weakened concrete blocks on the ground floors. Municipalities, constructors and supervisors should now see that their negligence amounts to murder.

"Despite all previous disasters, we see that the appeals were not heeded."

But Erdogan is not blameless.

In the first two days following the disaster, Erdogan and the Turkish government refused international aid from a dozen counties, including Greece, Israel and Armenia, countries that have had historically tense relationships with Turkey.

"I am under the impression the Turks do not want our help," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Channel 2 News on Monday. "Right now [their answer] is negative but if they see they need more aid and don't have it, or if they rethink it, we have made the offer and remain prepared [to help]."

Turkey now has accepted aid from Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Iran, and is ready to accept aid from Israel, but it seems to be too little to late.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/238071/ ... .htm?cid=2

[Lit]

Death toll is now over 500 and still many are missing. How many of these innocent people died because of the hate of one individual?

[Linichka]

If even one, it is too many.

And just underscoring their criminal behavior, Erdogan's foreign minister hastened forward with a pissy announcement that Israel's aid would not result in better Israeli-Turkish relations. Ungracious jerk; aid was sent for humanitarian reasons.

[Lit]

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c4623128 ... z1c5xXJXrR

October 28, 2011 4:38 pm
Turkey quake prompts questions

By Daniel Dombey in Istanbul

The snows have come to eastern Turkey and this year thousands of people are at their mercy. Five days after the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that hit the province of Van on Sunday, there are still not enough tents to go round and the climate of the mountainous region threatens to become murderously cold.

The unhoused population of the city of Van and the devastated town of Ercis continues its struggle for warmth and shelter. Families of the dead – numbered at 573 on Friday – are in mourning.

Meanwhile, the rest of the country is left with searing images from the disaster zone – of a two-week-old found inside a chest of drawers, of a 12-year-old who died on his way to hospital after worrying aloud he had been out too late – and with the discomfiting realisation that Turkey is neither as self-sufficient nor as well prepared for earthquakes as it thought.

After refusing aid from other countries, Turkey has relented, even accepting an airload of prefabricated houses from Israel, its estranged former ally.

More here: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c4623128 ... z1c5xXJXrR

[B25]

What happened to this so called super rich super powerful country??? Can't even afford a few tents for those poor blighters.

Where's VP when you need her to tell you about turkeys successes, who cannot deal with a minor disaster like this.

Perhaps she will now dump them in Cyprus with the other anatolian gypsies