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Rescuers Help in Türkiye and Syria After Deadly Earthquake

Workers are racing to find survivors of the natural disaster, which killed thousands of people.

February 9, 2023
By Mary Kate Frank

Ahmet Akpolat/DIA via AP

Rescue workers search the remains of a building in Kahramanmaraş, a city in southern Türkiye (Turkey), on February 8, 2023. Two days earlier, a powerful earthquake killed tens of thousands of people in that Middle Eastern nation and neighboring Syria. 

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

In the early morning of February 6, a powerful earthquake struck southern Türkiye (Turkey) and northern Syria. The quake sent shockwaves through cities and towns, causing thousands of buildings to crumble. Rescuers have been working tirelessly since to find survivors. 

In one such rescue, workers uncovered a family alive in the rubble of an apartment building in Gaziantep, Türkiye. After hours of digging, they lifted out a pair of twins—a girl named Elcin and a boy named Eray Ahmet. Workers formed a line and passed the children from hand to hand to waiting ambulances. Next they helped lift out the twins’ mother and father.

The family’s rescue was among the more hopeful stories after the natural disaster. The 7.8 magnitude quake and its aftershocks are estimated to have killed more than 20,000 people and injured thousands of others. Search crews are still digging through the rubble for survivors. 

“We are face-to-face with one of the biggest disasters ever for our region,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Türkiye. 

REUTERS/Umit Bektas

A 5-year-old child is rescued from a damaged building in southern Türkiye, on February 7, 2023.

Racing the Clock

Earthquakes are common in this part of the Middle East. But the February 6 quake was one of the strongest to hit the region in 100 years. It was also the deadliest quake worldwide in more than a decade.

Volunteers from all over the world have rushed to help, including U.S. search-and-rescue teams. In the first days after the quake, crews rescued more than 8,000 people in Türkiye alone. But they were working against time as temperatures sank below freezing and snow piled up on the debris. 

There is another obstacle: Many roads are blocked due to quake damage. This has delayed the arrival of heavy equipment needed to move debris and reach victims. Some rescuers are digging by hand. Survivors—many barefoot—have been huddling in tents and cars, and around bonfires to stay warm. 

BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images

Survivors warm themselves by a fire in Jindayris, a town in northern Syria, on February 7, 2023. 

Crisis After Crisis

In Syria, the earthquake made a terrible situation even worse. A civil war has raged there for more than a decade. The conflict between the government and rebel groups has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions of Syrians to flee their homes. 

Nearly 11 million people in Syria have been affected by the earthquake, according to the United Nations (U.N.). Four million of them already were relying on aid from international groups for basic needs like clean water and food. Getting aid to them since the quake has been extremely difficult, according to U.N. officials. 

Near the city of Idlib in Syria, local doctor Nehad Abdulmajeed wondered how much more the country could take. 

“I believed that maybe I had seen everything,” he said, “but these are the most tragic days that I have seen in my entire life.”

In the United States, President Joe Biden pledged that the federal government would do whatever it could to help in the recovery efforts. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to supporting the people of Türkiye and Syria in this time of need,” he told reporters.

—additional reporting by The New York Times

What Is an Earthquake?

Earth’s crust, or rocky outer layer, is broken into slabs of rock called tectonic plates. An earthquake happens when the edges of the plates suddenly push against each other. This causes the ground to move and shake.

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