Syria-Turkey Earthquake Death Toll Could Top 20,000 As US Sanctions Make Life A Living Hell

A devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake shook both Turkey and Syria this Monday, resulting in unprecedented damage which may take weeks to bring under control, by which point the World Health Organisation (WHO) claims as many as 20,000 people could be recorded as killed by the quake. Despite the international shock over the impact of the disaster, the victims in Syria’s government-held areas are being ignored and still suffer under US government sanctions.

This Monday’s earth shattering quake will affect the lives of at least 23 million people in both southern Turkey and northern Syria, with countless millions having taken to the streets and refrained from returning home due to safety precautions. To make things worse, at night time these displaced civilians are faced with sub-zero temperatures and in areas like north-west Syria, (around 4 million Syrians) under the control of al-Qaeda linked militant groups, and have had all major routes cut off for receiving UN aid, which they depend upon. Perhaps worst of all, however, is the fact that aid to those Syrians who are living inside government controlled areas is restricted and they have been almost entirely ignored in much of the coverage of the tragic events, despite such high death tolls.

Cities like Latakia, Hama and Aleppo, all located in government controlled Syrian territory, are still subject to the US government’s crippling “Caesar Act” sanctions, introduced under the Trump administration and upheld by the Biden White House. These cities only have access to a few hours of electricity per day, despite the fact that their country is rich in natural resources. Without the approval of congress, the US government has operated and continues to operate inside Syria, since the Obama administration. Along with the aid of its proxy-force, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the US military currently illegally occupies Syria’s most fertile agricultural lands and resource rich oil and gas fields in the north-east of the country; this illegal seizure of Syrian land amounts to the occupation of roughly one third of the nation’s territory. The occupation means that Syria cannot access its own resources, whether they be agricultural or natural gas, aiding in crippling the Syrian state.

The US sanctions have been condemned on a number occasions by experts at the United Nations, as they have proven to impact Syria’s medical, electrical, infrastructural, and other vital sectors. Last year, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures and human rights, Alena Douhan, called on the West to drop its unilateral sanctions against the Syrian government, citing the humanitarian crisis the sanctions were causing. “With more than half of the vital infrastructure either completely destroyed or severely damaged, the imposition of unilateral sanctions on key economic sectors, including oil, gas, electricity, trade, construction, and engineering have quashed national income, and undermine efforts towards economic recovery and reconstruction”, Douhan said. The UN expert also added that “no reference to good objectives of unilateral sanctions justifies the violation of fundamental human rights. The international community has an obligation of solidarity and assistance to the Syrian people.”

Another horrifying result of the sanctions has been the rise of Cholera inside Syria, with the disease being previously eradicated and making a hard return under the current sub-standard living conditions faced by the bulk of the Syrian population. The ongoing Cholera epidemic is also at risk of dramatically expanding in its scope due to the impacts of Monday’s earthquake, as millions of Syrians are left homeless and in the cold, with a lack of access to food, medical supplies, and heating. The sanctions on the Syrian state were already putting a huge strain on the medical sector, as well as preventing reconstruction of vital infrastructure that was damaged during the illegal war, the country’s re-construction efforts will also be struck down by the sanctions when attempting to rebuild from the damage caused by the recent quake.

The US government has notably pledged to give Turkey “anything” it needs in the aftermath of the earthquake and its aftershocks, yet refuses to so much as contact the Syrian government. This, if anything, should serve as a striking example of the false-humanitarianism of the US regime, only aiding those who work for its own self-interests. It would not be difficult for Washington to decide to make an exemption to their sanctions in order to help in the aiding of the Syrian cities that were affected by the earthquake, as a bare minimum requirement for allowing aid to properly find the victims of the disaster. A number of provinces in Syria lack the medical supplies, staff, and technical equipment necessary to rescue the thousands of Syrians buried under the rubble, as time is ticking to save any possible survivors who may starve, suffocate, or freeze to death. The lack of Syria’s ability to properly deal with this scenario is intrinsically linked to the sanctions, this is why the Middle East Council of Churches, which has mobilized in order to allocate resources to deal with the earthquake’s aftermath, has called on the West to immediately lift its crippling sanctions.

To add insult to injury, Israel did not hesitate to capitalize on the horrifying disaster and score political points over the Syrian government at a time when tens of thousands were still trapped under the rubble. Tel Aviv came out and claimed that the Syrian government, which is technically at a state of war with Israel, had requested them for help through Russia as an intermediary. Not only was this claim completely untrue, but the Israelis even went as far as to claim that help was on the way and that they had began to start efforts to transfer aid to Syria, another outright lie; no Western country gave aid to those affected in government-held areas.

With the death toll expected to rise above 20,000 — in Syria and Turkey — the only countries that have came to the aid of Syria so far have been Iran, Russia, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, and Lebanon. The UAE is also preparing to send aid and reports have indicated that Egypt will also. In addition to this, Hezbollah has pledged that it will mobilize to help Syria and the Palestinian Red Crescent has also already deployed medical workers to Syria in order to help. The US completely ruled out coordinating with the Syrian government and no Western government has been willing to help the Syrian civilians who are currently suffering an exaggerated aftermath to an already harrowing event due specifically to US sanctions — once again revealing the true nature of those falsely claiming to be acting in the best interest of the Syrian people. In addition to this, Western corporate media is refusing to focus coverage on cities that were affected, if they are in government-controlled territory, effectively choosing to collectively punish those living in these areas, due to politics.

What this earthquake has surely shown, is that the US hasn’t changed its mind about the price being “worth it” to sanction innocent civilians to death in the Middle East, just as was the case in the 1990’s and early 2000’s – preceding the war – in Iraq, where as many as 800,000 children died as a result of their sanctions.