Turkish Citizens Upset Palestinians Are Given More Aid Than Earthquake Victims

"The prime minister runs for help when it's Palestine or Somalia, sends ships to Palestine, almost goes into war with Israel for the sake of Palestinians, but he doesn't move a muscle when it comes to his own people," 

Fighting broke out among Turkish earthquake survivors on Tuesday as homeless families scrambled for tents after enduring two nights of biting cold under whatever shelter they can find.

Complaints about poor tent distribution have been rife since Sunday's quake destroyed thousands of homes and made many others uninhabitable, and anger among the destitute is being directed at Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Desperation boiled over in a crowd of around 200 people in the eastern city of Van on Tuesday. Fists flew and people shoved and pulled each other, trying to grab one of the tents which relief workers handed out from the back of a truck.

Survivors, many of whom have been forced to huddle round small fires in the open, accused Erdogan of putting international diplomacy before his own citizens.

"There is absolutely no coordination, you have to step on people to get a tent. The Prime Minister should take care of his own people before going to Somalia and Libya," said jobless 18-year-old Suleyman Akbulut.

Women in the crowd were hit and kicked as people tried to force their way through to get to the tents, while police tried in vain to establish order.

reuters

Turkey Refuses Israeli Aid Even Though They Have "primitive equipment"

I couldn't understand why Turkey would refuse aid from experienced Israel, yet agree to accept aid from ill-prepared countries like Iran. IsraelMatzav has a great explanation why.  

Search-and-rescue personnel working in the Van earthquake zone have decried their “primitive” working conditions and lack of technical equipment as they try and reach survivors from the eastern province’s devastating temblor.

"We are working with primitive tools, we have no equipment," one rescuer told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Emergency personnel said they heard cries for help coming from under a collapsed building this morning and started to work on the wreckage to reach the survivors. The cries had stopped at around noon, they said, adding that they had to dig out the dead bodies of quake victims.

"We can't get to survivors fast enough," one rescue team member said.

The spirit among rescuers is noticeably low, and some members could only weep in frustration at the situation.

There is a device to find people under rubble, rescuers said, but added that they only had one of the devices in the district of Erciş, which was worst hit by the Oct. 23 quake.

"We yell into collapsed buildings, asking if anybody is there," a rescue team member said.

Aid inadequate

Only one food distribution point was set up in Erciş and there was a significant lack of supplies and equipment. No new aid truck or supplies arrived for the hours that the Hürriyet Daily News was in Erciş.

Banks, hospitals and stores were all damaged or destroyed in the quake but there have been no reports of looting as people have continued to walk around Erciş in shock.

Many survivors said the only thing they wanted was some bread.

All but one of the homes in the nearby Yedikonak village was flattened in the quake.

Hurriyet