earthquake in Turkey and Syria

A wooden plank marks a grave in a cemetery in Pazarcik, Turkey.

World News

Turkey buries its earthquake dead in small cemeteries and mass graves

9:28am February 15, 2023

by Jason Beaubien

With so many killed suddenly in the quake, Turkey faces the challenge of burying tens of thousands of people. Multiple funerals are happening at once and the process of burying the dead is constant.

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Melike Bayar, 34, cries as she stands outside the building where her relatives died.

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After Turkey's quake, one family mourns its losses — and braces for more

5:03am February 14, 2023

As volunteers continue digging through the rubble of a collapsed apartment building, the siblings of a woman found dead with her four children are now awaiting news of their mother and another sister.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visits the city center destroyed by last the Feb. 6 earthquake in Kahramanmaras, southern Turkey, on Feb. 8.

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Videos show Turkey's Erdogan boasted letting builders avoid earthquake codes

2:10pm February 13, 2023

by Peter Kenyon

Videos have surfaced in Turkish media of the president in 2019 praising a policy that let builders off the hook for skirting safety codes that could have made buildings more quake resistant.

Women sit in front of the rubble of an area destroyed during the earthquake in Antakya, southeastern Turkey, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023.

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Rescuers keep digging for survivors a week after the Turkey-Syria earthquake

10:24am February 13, 2023

by Peter Kenyon

People buried under rubble in southern Turkey continue to defy the odds, surviving freezing weather and a week without water. A 40-year-old woman was pulled alive in Gaziantep province early Monday.

People walk past collapsed buildings on Thursday in the town of Jinderis, in Syria's Aleppo province, days after a massive earthquake devastated the region.

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Northern Syria, already ravaged by war, is desperate for aid after the earthquake

3:04pm February 11, 2023

by Ruth Sherlock

In northern Syria, people already displaced by civil war are now suffering from the effects of this week's earthquake. But aid has been unable to reach them.

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A 26-year-old pregnant woman named Talibe Gezginci cleans her tent in a makeshift camp for displaced people in Gaziantep.

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After Turkey's quake, some people left homeless say they haven't eaten in days

1:06pm February 11, 2023

by Erin O'Brien

In a camp in Gaziantep and in makeshift settlements in the fields around it, survivors of Monday's quake say they do not have enough food, water, heating or basic amenities to keep themselves alive.

Turkish rescue workers carry Ergin Guzeloglan, 36, to an ambulance on Saturday after pulling him out of a collapsed building in Hatay, southern Turkey, five days after an earthquake devastated the region.

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Survivors are still being found as the earthquake's death toll tops 25,000

10:45am February 11, 2023

by The Associated Press

Rescue crews pulled more survivors, including entire families, from toppled buildings despite diminishing hopes as the death toll of the quake in Turkey and Syria surpassed 25,000.

Destroyed buildings are seen from above in Antakya, southeastern Turkey, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.

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Syrian refugees starting over in Turkey are hit hard by the earthquake

5:10pm February 09, 2023

The majority of Syrian refugees live in southern Turkish cities near the Syrian border. NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Assalah Shikhani, a Syrian refugees in the Turkish city of Antakya, about the quake.

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A woman sits on the rubble as emergency rescue teams search for people under the remains of destroyed buildings in the town of Nurdagi on the outskirts of Osmaniye in southern Turkey on Tuesday.

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The world's deadliest earthquakes in the past 25 years, at a glance

5:04pm February 09, 2023

by The Associated Press

The magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck Turkey and war-torn Syria on Monday has killed more than 20,000 people. Here are some of the world's deadliest earthquakes in the past quarter-century.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tours the site of destroyed buildings during his visit to the city of Kahramanmaras, in southeast Turkey, on Wednesday, two days after the severe earthquake that hit the region.

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As the earthquake death toll soars, so does criticism of Turkey's government response

4:49pm February 09, 2023

by Rob Schmitz

Critics are laying into the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accusing it of incompetence in its response to the massive quake and misplacing tax revenues meant for dealing with disasters.