Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country will lay the foundation stone for 30,000 housing units, to begin the reconstruction of the areas destroyed by earthquakes, in a telephone conversation with the organizers of the "Turkey is One Heart" campaign, which raised more than $6 billion in 7 hours for the benefit of the earthquake victims.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that his country aims to construct new and safe buildings within one year, in place of every building destroyed in earthquakes.
This came during a telephone conversation with the organizers of a joint campaign under the title "Turkey is One Heart" to collect donations, which was launched by Turkish, Azerbaijani and Turkish Cypriot channels and radio stations for those affected by the earthquakes.
Erdogan explained, "Our goal is to construct new and safe buildings to replace every building destroyed in earthquakes, within one year."
Regarding the "Turkey is One Heart" campaign, he added, "Our people will once again show their generosity by breaking a record in donating to those affected by earthquakes."
And he added, "As of the beginning of next March, we will lay the foundation stone for 30,000 housing units, and thus we will have begun the reconstruction of the demolished areas."
Erdogan indicated that all the sums that will be collected during the campaign will be spent for those affected by the earthquakes.
Erdogan had mercy on the souls of the victims and wished a speedy recovery for the injured.
He pointed out that all state institutions and their staff and all the Turkish people will stand together to support those affected by the earthquake.
Erdogan thanked all the friendly countries that stood by Turkey in facing the effects of the earthquakes.
The fundraising campaign succeeded in raising more than $6 billion within 7 hours for the benefit of those affected by the earthquakes.
On Wednesday evening, 213 TV stations and 562 radio stations inside and outside Turkey broadcast a joint campaign called "Turkey is One Heart", in which Turkish celebrities participated in presenting the campaign live.
The campaign received wide support from businessmen, companies, politicians, athletes and actors.
Over the course of 7 hours of live broadcasting, the campaign received large donations amounting to 115 billion and 146 million and 528 thousand Turkish liras (about 6.1 billion dollars).
In a phone call, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced his support for the campaign with one million euros.
Expressing his sincere condolences to the Turkish government and people, Rama affirmed that Albania has not forgotten the stand of Turkey and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with his country when it was hit by a 6.4-magnitude earthquake in 2019 that killed 51 people.
He added, "We are ready to harness our capabilities to support the Turkish people, and I announce, on behalf of the Albanian people, a donation of one million euros to the earthquake victims."
He continued, "I know that this amount is not large and that larger sums are needed, but this is what is available in our hands at the present time, and I believe that the most important thing is to do what is available."
On February 6, two earthquakes struck southern Turkey and northern Syria, the first measuring 7.7 and the second 7.6 degrees, and hundreds of violent aftershocks, which left huge losses of lives and property in both countries.
"Where is Baba and Mama?" The earthquake in Syria leaves orphans and trauma after the dust of the disaster has settled
Since the earthquake occurred in southern Turkey and northern Syria, pictures of children who were pulled alive from under the rubble of their homes have dominated the media and social networking sites. UNICEF said that more than seven million children were affected by the earthquake, 2.5 million of whom are in Syria.
The earthquake that hit Syria on the sixth of this month, centered in Turkey, killed about forty thousand people in the two countries, leaving a large number of orphaned children.
In a hospital in northwestern Syria, the child Hana does not tire of asking daily about her parents and her younger sister, without knowing that she is the only survivor in her family after the devastating earthquake.
"She asks every day about her father and mother. Until now, we have not told her that they died with her sister, who we told her that she is sick like her and is receiving treatment in another ward," Abdullah, the uncle of the child, Hana, told AFP.
Rescue workers pulled Hana (eight years old) from the rubble of her family's home 33 hours after the earthquake that caused the building to collapse in the town of Harem in Idlib Governorate, near the border with Turkey. The bodies of her mother, her four-year-old younger sister, and her father, a volunteer for the White Helmets, were recovered.
As soon as she was pulled from under the rubble, the little girl was taken to the hospital, where she is receiving treatment. Her uncle takes care of her, who talks to her at times and helps her drink juice at other times. The man expresses his fear that Hana will be traumatized if she learns of the loss of her family.
The attending physician, Basil Astif, told AFP that she had arrived at the hospital in a "difficult condition" and suffered "severe dehydration due to her being under the rubble without food or drink and in extreme cold."
"shock upon shock"
"We know from similar disasters that children are at high psychological risk because of the scale of the trauma," Samah Hadid, the Danish Refugee Council's communication and advocacy officer, told AFP.
“It is very common for children at this stage to have frequent nightmares,” she explained, adding that “now it is important for these children to stay in touch with their loved ones and get the protection and support they need.”
According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), more than seven million children, 2.5 million of them in Syria, were affected by the earthquake. In view of the catastrophic and increasing death toll, she explained that "many children have lost their parents in these devastating earthquakes," warning that "the number will be terrifying."
In the town of Harem, where the earthquake destroyed at least 35 buildings, according to the correspondent of the French Press Agency, the three-year-old Alp miraculously survived, after staying for forty hours under the rubble of his family's house, all of whose members died.
"My nephew is the only survivor, he lost his mother, father and brothers," Izzat Hamidi, 30, the child's uncle, told AFP from a children's hospital in Sarmada.
He explains with emotion how his sister's husband was found hugging the child and protecting him with his body while holding his other two children and his sister two meters away from them.
"many tragedies"
Hamidi is currently taking care of the child in the hospital's intensive care unit, and he is "threatened with amputation of his lower limbs." He says with a sigh: "He asked once since he was pulled from under the rubble about his mother," explaining that he is generally "unconscious and groaning" constantly from the pain.
Since the earthquake, pictures of children who were pulled alive from under the rubble of their homes have dominated the media and social media, most notably the girl who was born orphaned under the rubble in the border town of Jenderes with Turkey and was found connected to her mother through the umbilical cord.
In videos, medics are shown carrying children and rejoicing in getting them out alive, many hours after the earthquake.
Obada Zakra, an official in the White Helmets Organization, the Civil Defense in the areas controlled by the opposition factions, who participated in the search and rescue operations, says: "We saved many children alive , sometimes we extracted from the same family alive children and other victims."
And after the difficult and poignant moments experienced by the rescuers since last week, Zakra wishes nothing but that "our children will enjoy a different life, with the kind of stability and support that any child in the world gets."