Foreign donors pledged Monday in Brussels to help the populations of Turkey and Syria affected by the earthquake of February 6, which killed more than 56,000 people.
“Commitments today total 7 billion euros,” said Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, whose country holds the six-monthly presidency of the Council of the European Union, after an international donor conference organized in Brussels.
Of these 7 billion euros (10.3 billion Canadian dollars), some 950 million (1.4 billion Canadian dollars) go to the Syrian population, detailed the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. The majority of aid pledges are directed to Turkey, where the toll of the earthquake has been heaviest.
Mme von der Leyen welcomed “a good day for international solidarity”, but stressed that the conference, which was attended by more than 60 delegations, “was only the beginning”. “We have a lot of work ahead of us,” she acknowledged, adding that a donors’ conference for the Syrian population would be held in Brussels on June 14-15.
Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, called the outcome of the conference “a big step forward”. “But we still have a long way to go,” he stressed.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has estimated the total cost of the damage in his country at almost 100 billion euros (150 billion Canadian dollars). “It is impossible for a country to fight alone against a disaster of this magnitude,” he argued by videoconference.
In Syria, the cost of emergency repairs has been estimated by the UN at 13.8 billion euros (C$19.5 billion).
Millions of people have seen their homes destroyed in the earthquake-affected area in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria, home to a large population displaced by the Syrian conflict.
European aid to Turkey
Germany has announced that it is doubling its aid for earthquake victims to 240 million euros. France indicated that it was adding 12 million to the 30 million already announced for the two affected countries.
The 7.8 magnitude quake, followed by another nine hours later, killed 50,096 people in Turkey, according to the latest official report. In addition, 5,954 people also lost their lives in Syria, according to a compilation made by Agence France-Presse.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, candidate for his own succession on May 14, promised a reconstruction at no charge, “in one year”.
Even if relations are often tense, Turkey is a key partner for the European Union, which has paid large sums to this country to help it cope with the arrival of Syrian refugees. “We host four million refugees, including 3.5 million Syrians. As we lick our wounds, we stand in solidarity with the Syrian people, who have also been affected by the earthquake,” Erdoğan said.
The Damascus regime excluded
On the other hand, the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, sanctioned by the West since the suppression in 2011 of the popular uprising which degenerated into civil war, is not associated with the conference. What the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs “deplored” in a press release.
Although international aid was quickly sent to Turkey after the earthquake, humanitarian organizations had to overcome significant difficulties in providing support to the Syrian population, particularly in the rebel area of Idlib, in the north-west of the country. Since then, the European Union and the United States have eased sanctions on Syria, and Damascus has agreed to allow the UN to open two more border crossings to facilitate the delivery of aid.
“Let it be clear, the European Union is not working with the Assad regime. But we always support people in need,” said Ms.me von der Leyen, adding that aid was being channeled through partner humanitarian organisations.
Russia, Damascus’ main ally, was excluded from the Brussels donors’ conference because of the war in Ukraine.