A symbolic visit. The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, will travel to Turkey on Sunday, February 19, hit like neighboring Syria by two devastating earthquakes, in order 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. Follow our live.
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.