Blinken pledges long-term aid for Turkey after devastating earthquakes
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[February 20, 2023]
By Henriette Chacar, Ali Kucukgocmen and and Humeyra Pamuk
ANTAKYA, Turkey (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said
during a trip to Turkey that Washington will help Turkey "for as long as
it takes" after earthquakes rocked the country two weeks ago, as
authorities carried out widescale demolitions of damaged buildings.
The United States has sent a search and rescue team to Turkey, along
with medical supplies, concrete-breaking machinery and additional
funding of $85 million in humanitarian aid that also covers Syria.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said there was no need to wait
for a disaster and difficult times to improve relations with the United
States, speaking after talks with Blinken.
Cavusoglu, alongside Blinken, told a news conference that it was not
possible for Turkey to buy U.S. F-16 warplanes with pre-conditions and
that he believed the issue can be overcome if the U.S. administration
maintains a decisive stance.
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"The United States and Turkey do not agree on every issue but it is a
partnership that has withstood against challenges," Blinken told a joint
news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in
Ankara.
Total U.S. humanitarian assistance to support the earthquake response in
Turkey and Syria has reached $185 million, the U.S. State Department has
said.
Relations between the NATO allies have been strained since 2019 when
Ankara acquired Russian missile defense systems, among other sources of
tension between them.
Cavusoglu told reporters he had discussed a planned $20 billion deal for
U.S. F-16 warplanes with Blinken, and said that Turkey would like the
U.S. administration to send the formal notification for the F-16s to
Congress.
On Monday, rescue work wound down after the Feb. 6 earthquakes killed
more than 46,000 people in southern Turkey and northwest Syria.
Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) said that
nearly 13,000 excavators, cranes, trucks and other industrial vehicles
had been sent to the quake zone.
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![](../images/022023PIX/news_l98.jpg)
A man speaks on the phone as he sits by
a fire near a destroyed building in the aftermath of a deadly
earthquake in Antakya, Turkey February 20, 2023. REUTERS/Maxim
Shemetov
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The death toll in Turkey had risen to 41,020, AFAD said, and it was
expected to climb, with some 385,000 apartments in the country known
to have been destroyed or seriously damaged and many people still
missing.
Among the survivors of the Feb. 6 earthquakes in Turkey and Syria
are about 356,000 pregnant women who urgently need access to
reproductive health services, the U.N. sexual and reproductive
health agency (UNFPA) said at the weekend.
The women include 226,000 in Turkey and 130,000 in Syria, about
38,800 of whom will deliver in the next month.
FREEZING TEMPERATURES
It said many of the women are sheltering in camps or are living
exposed to freezing temperatures and struggling to get food or clean
water.
Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said a convoy of 14
of its trucks had entered northwestern Syria on Sunday to assist in
earthquake rescue operations, as concerns grow over lack of access
to the war-ravaged area.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has been pressuring authorities in
that region to stop blocking access as it seeks to help hundreds of
thousands of people in the wake of the earthquakes.
In Syria, already shattered by more than a decade of civil war, most
deaths have been in the northwest. The area is controlled by
insurgents at war with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad,
which has complicated efforts to get aid to people.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Feb/20/images/ads/current/charrons_bch_2022.png)
As of Monday morning, 197 trucks loaded with U.N. humanitarian aid
had entered northwest Syria through two border crossings, a
spokesperson for the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs said.
(Reporting by Henriette Chacar, Ali Kucukgocmen, Huseyin Hayatsever
and Ezgi Erkoyun; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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