The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim ben Hamad al Thani decided during a meeting in Paris to work together to help Turkey and Syria, hit by devastating earthquakes on February 6 that claimed more than 40,000 lives, the Elysee Palace said on Thursday February 16. “They agreed to continue and combine the efforts undertaken by France and Qatar to help the victims of the earthquakes and so that the difficulties of access, which the Syrian populations in the north of the country have faced in particular, can be lifted as soon as possible”, reported Thursday, February 16 the French presidency, the day after the meeting between the two heads of state. Follow our live.
A symbolic visit. The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, will travel to Turkey on Sunday, hit like neighboring Syria by two devastating earthquakes, to see the ongoing humanitarian effort there. Antony Blinken will begin this new European tour on Thursday by Germany, where he will participate Friday and Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.
Syria is reaching out to Arab countries. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hailed any “positive stance” from Arab countries, many of which moved closer to Damascus after the deadly earthquakes that struck Syria and Turkey. The Emirates have notably established an aid air bridge with Syria and Saudi Arabia this week sent a plane loaded with humanitarian aid.
Thousands of tents for Syria. Doctors Without Borders launches an operation “to transport about 2,000 tents” in northwestern Syria, where the situation is “quite chaotic”announced Marc Schakal, head of the Syria-Turkey program within the NGO.
The big Turkish football clubs mobilized. Players from the Turkish club Galatasaray will donate their salaries to fund aid to victims, announced the president of the Istanbul club. Istanbul’s three big clubs (Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe and Besiktas) have also launched donation campaigns, sending aid trucks to the devastated southern and southeastern provinces of the country.