Geographically, the closest geographical description of the area hit by the earthquake in southern Turkey and northern Syria appears to be the area of ​​the depths, meaning the "earthquake of the depths" at the dawn of February 5, since the area known as the plain of depths extends along the affected areas from the Syrian side to the Turkish side, with the exception of perhaps Some areas that were lightly exposed in the Syrian coast.

The earthquake was horrific and terrifying, as it measured 7.8 degrees on the Richter scale, the same strength as the earthquake that struck Pakistan in October 2005, and its effects were devastating and resulted in the death of more than 80,000 people, in addition to wiping cities and towns off the map. Pakistan.

The earthquake of the depths that struck the Turkish-Syrian region had not been witnessed in the region for a long time. For a century, Turkey had not witnessed it. As for Syria, it had not witnessed it since 1138, when a devastating earthquake struck the city of Aleppo and resulted in the death of two-thirds of the city’s people, and its intensity reached 8.5 degrees.

But the difference between yesterday and today in the liberated north of Syria is that the residents of the earthquake-hit region are mostly displaced people who were displaced because of the war waged against them by the regime and its protectors from Russia and Iran, and therefore the region is not able to absorb this huge number of immigrants whose number exceeded 4 million people. The infrastructure is not prepared for such huge numbers, in addition to the absence of a strong central government capable of dealing with an earthquake of this magnitude, as is the case of the Turkish government with its people and people.

Nevertheless, the local government in Idlib, through its cadres, was able to mitigate the horrors and severity of the earthquake, in light of the deprivation of international support for the stricken areas, which went - until Thursday - to the areas under the control of the regime, which were not exposed to what the areas of northern Syria outside its control were subjected to.

It should be recalled that the region is already exposed to a humanitarian catastrophe, in light of the presence of more than 4 million displaced people in it, and about 65% of the infrastructure that was destroyed by the war waged on the region 12 years ago, and that nearly 90% of its residents live on international aid, and with the limitation of a gate Relief International via Bab Al-Hawa only.

All this exacerbated the problem, after several gates towards Turkey were open, but the Russian insistence in the UN Security Council to keep Bab al-Hawa only open and subject to renewal every 6 months, increased the problems of people and the problems of international organizations contributing to helping the needy inside, so that it narrowed Its options for accessing needy areas from one gate after it was from several gates.

This region, hit by today's earthquake, summed up all the disasters in the past 12 years, from an internal war waged by the regime against it by bombing it with planes and barrel bombs and chemicals, in addition to its seeking the help of external powers such as Russia and Iran to help it in its war, as well as the Covid-19 disaster that exhausted it, amid the crumbling infrastructure. , drowning it in millions of homeless people, their poverty and their need for the most basic necessities of human life.

earthquake politicization

Since the first hours of the earthquake that hit the afflicted north of Syria, which is out of the control of the Assad regime, and the victims are paying the price, and it seems that this was an opportunity for some countries to send their aid to the regime, so voices emerged from within it calling for the lifting of the sanctions imposed by the Caesar Act on it, while it is known that these The penalties were for the regime’s personalities implicated in war crimes, in addition to the fact that the penalties included military materials and equipment, and had nothing to do with humanitarian materials.

Until the third consecutive day of the earthquake in northern Syria, Mr. Raed Al-Saleh, head of the White Helmets or the Civil Defense in the Syrian areas outside the control of the Assad regime, confirmed that no support had reached the affected areas.

Everyone noticed the open borders with its Iraqi and Lebanese allies, and therefore the demand to lift the sanctions is a political exploitation of a humanitarian crisis and the blood of innocent people who have fallen, and still are, by refusing to send relief to the stricken liberated north, despite the disaster entering its fourth day in a row, even though everyone knows that the hours are The first 72 are the most important and most dangerous when earthquakes occur, otherwise the rescue teams may announce the end of their work, and therefore everyone under the rubble may be declared dead.

An official in the United Nations pleaded at the beginning of the earthquake that they could not send aid due to logistical reasons, and the Bab al-Hawa road was cracked, while cars were transporting the bodies of the dead Syrians who died on the Turkish side for burial in northern Syria, and it is known that the stores of the United Nations in Reyhanli are only a Kilometers from Bab Al-Hawa.

Under popular pressure, the United Nations announced that it would send aid, and this was followed by a very late statement from the UN envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, when he said that aid should not be politicized, but as one of the Syrians in the north said, time is no longer gold for us, but Time is blood, and every delay in sending medicine, medical equipment, or equipment to remove the rubble leads to the loss of loved ones and friends, in the presence of hundreds of families trapped under the rubble, whose moans and cries are still heard.

The earthquake disaster revealed a shocking and clear fact that the liberated north of Syria is besieged even during its ordeal, and not before it. Otherwise, how can aid and subsidies reach the regime accused of being besieged and imposed sanctions, while it is absent from the afflicted liberated north, which is supposed to be far from siege and sanctions? !

Perhaps the best description of what is happening is what the British writer Charles Lister wrote that the liberated north is falling into the lion’s trap, when he sought to limit aid to be through its gate only.

Until the third day in a row of the earthquake in northern Syria, Mr. Raed Al-Saleh, head of the White Helmets - or the civil defense in the Syrian areas outside the control of the Assad regime - confirmed that no support had reached the affected areas, and that the urgent need for heavy equipment in order to remove the rubble and recover Trapped under the rubble, while the planes of some countries were landing at Damascus airport loaded with relief materials.

Pages loyal to the Syrian regime talked about the theft of these materials by the military militias affiliated with the regime, and the leaked photo from inside the city of Aleppo revealed that the militias loyal to the regime had "looted" the houses from which their people fled for fear of their collapse due to their cracks in the first place from the Russian and Assad air strikes, and sources have spoken In the Syrian Civil Defense, most of the buildings that fell in Aleppo and others as a result of the earthquake had previously been bombed by the Syrian or Russian regime forces.

The extent of the damage in Syria

As of Thursday morning, February 9, the death toll in the liberated north of Syria, according to the statistics of the Minister of Health in the Salvation Government, Dr. Hussein Bazar, had exceeded 3,000 dead, and 5,000 wounded. Thousands of families forfeited their homes and buildings, exacerbating the problem.

However, according to workers in the health sector in the liberated north, the urgent need lies in neurological, orthopedic and surgical medical specialties, in addition to surgical equipment.

Today, many are talking about the post-earthquake phase. The relatively middle class that was affected and lived in civilian areas far from tents, will have a negative and serious impact on the economy in the liberated north. Today, such a class needs aid, while yesterday it supported families and employed people. Therefore, the great challenge is to restore this class to what it was, so that the poor and destitute life of the region can return to what it was before the earthquake.

There is another challenge, which is the collapse of many buildings and houses, and therefore they must be repaired in a proper manner, otherwise the tragedies may continue, in addition to the damage to roads, hospitals and public places that are supposed to be properly repaired, in the hope that life will continue at the same difficult pace already in pre-earthquake period.