Turkey and Syria earthquake: The Tragedy that Shook the World

Nicolas Tremblay

Staff Writer

February 6th was a nightmare for Turkey and Syria when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake occurred, followed by over 6,000 seismic responses with magnitudes of 5 up to 6. This tragedy has taken the lives of over 44,000 people in both affected countries, which is getting closer to 50,000 (dated February 19th). The number of injured is over 120,000, which shows the intensity of such a tragedy. Among the dead, many children have sadly passed away after being rescued. There is also a familiar face among the victims; the international Ghanaian winger Christian Atsu, who played for many football clubs, including Newcastle United in the Premier League. His body was found on February 18th under the rubble of a building in the city of Antakya. The Premier League stated its condolences to his family and showed its support for the victims of this tragedy through a Twitter post. The football club paid homage to their late player by inviting his family for a pre-game tribute. Knowing that finding survivors at this point will be difficult, Turkey has decided to stop the majority of its research except for two provinces that were hit the hardest by this disaster. The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, visits Turkey to discuss security and humanitarian matters. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, who reminded the President of Turkey of his support, will have important decisions to make regarding emergency immigration coming from both Turkey and Syria after those tragic events. We are giving our support to the people touched by this tragedy.