Tragedy unending in quake-devastated areas; Greece offering all the help it can
The plight of hundreds of thousands of people left homeless by earthquakes in the southeast Turkey and northwest Syria grew more desperate on Thursday, as hopes faded of many more people being found alive amid the ruins, according to a Reuters dispatch.
The death toll from Monday’s twin quakes, which struck in the early morning, surpassed 17,000.
It tremors marked the biggest natural disaster to strike the wider region since 1999, when an equally powerful quake killed more than 17,000 people in northwest Turkey.
On its part, the Greek state transported another 17 fire-fighter emergency responders on Wednesday afternoon, along with a physician. Another two units of Greece’s civil defense force are already operating in southeast Turkey. Meanwhile, a total of six flights loaded with humanitarian aid have departed Greece for the quake-stricken areas.
The Holy Synod of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece and individual Metropolises around the country have also commenced the collection of aid to be dispatched to those in need.
Syrian Christian leaders call for end to sanctions
Still on the same subject, three prominent Christian ecclesiastical leaders in Syria issued a joint letter this week calling for an end to sanctions against the strife-plagued country, charging that such sanctions are unjustly preventing vital aid from reaching the people most affected by the devastating earthquakes.
The Feb. 7 letter was signed by the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, His Beatitude John X, the Melkite Catholic Patriarch Youssef I and Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II.
The letter reads, among others, “This natural disaster adds to the ordeal of the Syrian people, who continue to suffer from the tragedies of war, crises, disasters, epidemics, and the harsh economic hardships resulting from inflation, the absence of indispensable materials, medications, and daily basic necessities needed in order for people to survive and live in dignity.”
At the same time, His Beatitude John X has instructed for the creation of volunteer units to provide assistance in the Hama, Lattakia and Aleppo districts of northern Syria, and the collection of humanitarian aid for the quake-stricken.
Additionally, Syria has, for the first time, requested assistance from the European Union, the European Commission announced on Wednesday.
The EU said it would provide additional emergency support to both Turkey and Syria.
Source: orthodoxianewsagency.gr
