Weekly Action - 9 February 2024 - Turkey-Syria Earthquake Anniversary

Turkey-Syria Earthquake

This last Tuesday 6 February was the first anniversary of a series of earthquakes which struck southern Turkey and northern Syria last year causing widespread devastation. More than 55,000 people were killed, over 100,000 injured and 3 million left homeless. Over 37,000 buildings were destroyed and 200,000 badly damaged.^[1] In just one tragic story, Al Jazeera reported how after the disaster in Jindires in northwestern Syria a single newborn baby was pulled from the rubble, the only survivor of her whole family.^[2] Such tragedies were repeated thousands of times over across the region. One year on the area is still devastated. Many villages and towns are still little more than piles of rubble. Tens of thousands of people are still living in temporary shelters, facing a cold winter. Families are still grieving the loss of loved ones, helping those with permanent life-changing injuries, and still living out the psychological and emotional trauma from the tragedy.

Such terrible natural disasters are devastating wherever they strike. But, they are much more deadly when they hit developing countries, that are already poorer and more vulnerable. Turkey is currently classified by the World Bank as a Middle Income Country, whilst Syria is a Low Income Country, and has of course been devastated by civil war for more than a decade. There are multiple studies that show that natural disasters are much more deadly and cause far greater loss of life and suffering when they hit less developed countries, than when they occur in rich nations. Developed nations have safer (properly enforced) building regulations, infrastructure and large emergency and healthcare systems, all of which help significantly reduce the casualties. Indeed, there have been numerous cases where the very same tropical storms that have been devastating in Latin America and the Caribbean, caused far fewer deaths when they hit the more developed Unites States.

Tackling the underlying poverty that leaves nations vulnerable to disasters

Therefore, the governments of the world need to provide both short-term emergency relief for those impacted by disasters, but also long-term development support to help lift nations out of poverty, and make them more resilient to such shocks. This very much reflects what we already know as Christians, that the Bible is abundantly clear that we should care for all those in need. As James tells us, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1: 27). Arise’s 4 Shifts Report and Campaign looks at this and other lessons from the Bible, and at what has worked to successfully lift nations out of poverty in the past. It finds that two key shifts are essential. 1) Nations need to develop strong and fair national economies to create jobs and wealth. 2) They can then tax these to provide social spending and basic services like healthcare and education, to ensure all benefit, not just the richest in society. All nations that have developed successfully have followed this route, and the international community should do all it can to support other nations to take the same approach. This is the only way to tackle the root underlying vulnerability of poverty and make nations more resilient to tragic disasters like the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria last year.

Will you take action as part of Arise’s 4 Shifts campaign this week, and urge nations around the world to respond to immediate needs when disaster strikes, but also to provide generous long-term support to all nations to lift themselves out of poverty?

Take Action

Speak out in advocacy

Contact the UK’s overseas Development Minister Andrew Mitchell via social media. Ask him to immediately scale up UK overseas aid back to 0.7% of Gross National Income and use it to:

Dramatically scale up the emergency aid the UK provides when disaster strikes.
Make developing nations more resilient to tragic disasters by reducing the underlying poverty that leads to vulnerability, by helping them to A) develop a proactive national industrial and economic development strategy to create a diverse national economy, and B) develop effective tax systems to collect tax at an amount equivalent to at least 45% from that national economy (one third from income taxes, one third from wealth taxes and one third from other taxes), to be spent on healthcare, education and social protection (pensions, benefits etc.).

Contact him on Twitter at: @AndrewmitchMP, on Instagram at: andrewmitchellmp and on Facebook at: Andrew Mitchell MP, or search for him on your favourite social media platform.

Pray

Pray for all those whose lives are devastated by earthquakes and other disasters. Pray for the authorities in each nation to be prepared and to respond rapidly in any crisis. Pray that the international community will provide generous support when this happens in vulnerable countries. Pray that donor nations will also provide longer–term support to tackle the underlying problems of poverty that leave developing nations more vulnerable when disasters strike.

Give

The Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) of UK overseas humanitarian aid agencies coordinates the response of major agencies to disasters like last year’s earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Give to the DEC, and to Christian organisations like Cafod, Christian Aid, Tearfund or World Vision who are members of the DEC and are supporting communities impacted by disasters in countries around the world.

Practical Action

Help spread the message further by following Arise on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Ethical Consumption

Help developing nations lift themselves out of poverty, and therefore become more resilient to tragic disasters like the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, by buying products and services with the Fairtrade mark, where a much higher proportion of your money goes to producers in the developing world.

Encourage us and others by letting us know what actions you have taken – message us at info@ariseuk.org, or via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

Find out more

It’s great to take this action as individual Christians, but even better to come together with others to pray, discuss, worship, learn, have fun and take action together. Contact Arise if you are interested in joining or starting a local Arise group in your church or area.

Find out more about why the world needs 4 Shifts to transition to a green and fair global economy in Arise’s 4 Shifts Report, and how this forms part of God’s bigger vision for our world in the Arise Manifesto.

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[1] Türkiye (Turkey) and Syria earthquake 2023: a year on, British Red Cross, (2 Feb 2024), https://www.redcross.org.uk/stories/disasters-and-emergencies/world/turkey-syria-earthquake

[2] 11,000 dead as Turkey, Syria earthquake search continues, Al Jazeera, (8 Feb 2023), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/8/turkey-syria-earthquake-search-intensifies-as-death-toll-climbs