“Only the [rescue] dog knows what we have witnessed here,” said a member of the Armenian search and rescue crew working to find survivors in Adiyaman, Turkey, following the 6 February earthquakes that devastated the south-east of the country and north-western Syria.
Twin earthquakes of 7.8 and 7.6 magnitudes caused massive destruction in both countries, especially the cities of Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Diyarbakır, Adana, Osmaniye, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman, Malatya and the province of Hatay in Turkey, and Aleppo, Idlib, Hama and Latakia in Syria. The death toll stands at more than 50,000 people – though is likely to rise – and millions more have been displaced.
In the first few days after the earthquakes, humanitarian support started flooding in, especially to Turkey. More than 30,000 search and rescue workers joined the effort, including teams from 40 countries.
