Right now the official death toll of #earthquake in #Turkey alone is 912, and there are 5383 people wounded. More than 320 people died in #Syria as well. Making it the total number of people died in this earthquake is more than 1200.

nytimes.com/live/2023/02/05/wo…

Official update: death toll of #earthquake in #Turkey has risen to 1014.

Considering there are still aftershocks, places where help couldn’t reach yet, and more, I don’t think it’s going to stop here unfortunately.

Latest update from the #earthquake in #Turkey: 1498 people died and 8533 people wounded.

There are many international help announced but also many places couldn’t receive any help or rescue teams. Plus, there are many minor earthquakes still happening, makes people scared of another major one like it happened around afternoon today.

Latest update from the #earthquake in #Turkey: 1541 people died and 9733 people wounded. 3471 buildings completely destroyed.

All schools and universities in Turkey has been cancelled for this week.

It’s 18:40 in Turkey. Most cities hit by the earthquake having seriously harsh weather, which makes things even harder.

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey: 1762 people died and 12068 people wounded. 5606 buildings completely destroyed.

Turkey declared seven day national mourning.

International help started to arrive but because of the size of the effected area and the damage, many places are still waiting for help.

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey: 2379 people died and 14483 people wounded. 6217 buildings completely destroyed.

Weather is making things much worse. Roads around the cities hit by the earthquake is blocked or became harder to pass and there are news coming from especially from Hatay and Adıyaman about neighborhoods not receiving any help.

It’s 00:35 in Turkey, and I don’t know how bad things will turn out in the morning or the coming days.

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey (11:44): 3419 people died and 20426 people wounded. 11302 buildings reported to be destroyed, AFAD so far verified 5775.

Things are not looking good mainly because government can’t manage to control the situation. But they still claim “they’ve reached everywhere” while on live news people all around seen without any help.

Also Erdogan is nowhere to be seen since yesterday afternoon.

One would assume that after all of this government focuses on fixing the organization and resource management issues, right?

Instead, every government official is blaming disinformation, claiming everything is under control. While we see people everywhere telling us otherwise.

Not only that but they started legal process on 90 social media accounts for that, and sharing a link to an app for people to report disinformation to them.

#Turkey #Earthquake

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey (15:30): 3549 people died and 22168 people wounded. 11302 buildings reported to be destroyed, AFAD so far verified 5775.

Erdoğan made the latest announcement but no acknowledgement about the many places without help. Repeated disinformation claims.

10 cities (Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Diyarbakır, Adana, Osmaniye, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman, Malatya, and Hatay) declared disaster zones and three month state of emergency finally declared for these cities.

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey (20:36): 4544 people died and 26721 people wounded.

To be honest, there's not much to update at this point, other than the fact that in each passing hour we see how things are much worse than we imagined and how government's incompetence makes things worse. This is a historically devastating disaster and not sure how long the recovery from it will take.

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey (00:13): 5894 people died and 34810 people wounded.

Situation hasn't changed much unfortunately, aside from the fact that after the state of emergency declaration they're now trying to control the media in the disaster zones. Plus they took someone under custody for couple tweets.

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey (Day 3 - 11:40): 7108 people died and 40910 people wounded.

Official news says number of rescue teams and help workers are rising every hour but people in these cities are angry because they feel it's too late.

News coming from every city people rescued under the rumble days later, and all the international support coming in many different ways gives at least some level of hope for the coming days.

One interesting development from late last night was the video message from the main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

After government officials and party members keep using "no politics" talking point but trying to manipulate many details for their own political benefit, he came out and openly said "we will talk politics because this is the result of your policies". Many people were surprised (and kinda happy) that a politician said what they all think.

bianet.org/english/crisis/2739…

Kılıçdaroğlu: 'We will not accept your bureaucratic blocking this time'

The opposition leader declared in his visit to the earthquake-hit areas that the government fails in their rescue and relief efforts and that they themselves will take up rescue and aid efforts.

^{Bianet - Bagimsiz Iletisim Agi}

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey (Day 3 - 16:36): 8574 people died and 49133 people wounded.

* Erdoğan told one of the victims "it's all part of the plan of the fate".

* I was trying to bring some attention to people's effort to organize information using Twitter API and how it'll be cut down tomorrow with the API changes but looks like it doesn't matter now because for the last 30 mins most of the ISPs started to throttle Twitter from here.

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey (Day 3 - 22:26): 9057 people died and 52979 people wounded.

(This information from 4 hours ago and we don't have any new information yet.)

Censorship of Twitter is practically confirmed. No official acceptance but it's impossible to reach without VPN. Interestingly, only other platform also censored is TikTok.

Because of this, information from the cities limited with independent journalists, and I can clearly see Twitter getting more silent each moment.

There are no new updates about the situation on the ground but Anadolu Agency just served the news about Twitter representatives meeting with Turkish government officials, which includes a screenshot from the video call.

The article says government “reminded Twitter about its responsibilities to fight against disinformation” and talked about working together. Which means they threatened them with keep throttling unless they start censoring.

Just as I suspected, all the events today made it clear that government wants total control on the information about the #earthquake in #Turkey.

It’s 01:50 in here and we don’t have any updates for 8 hours. Twitter and TikTok was blocked, the latter seems to be back, and they had a special meeting with the former. After 20+ years with them, I’m sure this is how they’re planning to continue.

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey (Day 4 - 12:18): 12873 people died and 62937 people wounded. (Based on the announcement from couple hours ago.)

After 10 hours, Twitter returned after the meeting between government officials and Twitter. We don't know what Elon has promised.

There are still people rescued under the rumble but the resources are still limited.

One major issue is the communication. People are especially angry to mobile operators for not doing enough. And they're right.

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey (Day 4 - 16:01): 14351 people died and 63794 people wounded. (Data shared around 14:30.)

It's now clear that this earthquake will become the second most devastating disaster in the history of the modern Turkey, leaving 1999 İzmit earthquake (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_%C4…) behind. It might end up more destructive than 1939 Erzincan earthquake (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Erz…).

Right now they're discussing the state of emergency decision in the parliament.

August 1999 earthquake in Turkey

^{Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)}

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey (Day 4 - 19:08): 16546 people died and 66132 people wounded. (Data shared around 18:30.)

6444 buildings confirmed to be destroyed by the earthquake.

All schools around the country cancelled for another week. Universities won't start spring semester until further notice.

State of emergency declaration for 10 cities accepted in the parliament. Three biggest opposition parties opposed it based on the near-unlimited power it gives to the government.

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey (Day 4 - 01:44): 17674 people died and 72879 people wounded. (Data shared around midnight.)

Not much additional updates at this point. One major issue I see in the reports from the journalists is that people having trouble with basic hygiene needs, which might end up causing epidemics.

Update from the #earthquake in #Turkey (Day 5 - 16:05): 18991 people died and 75523 people wounded. (Data shared around 15:20.)

It’s the fifth day but we still get news of people rescued under the rubble.

There are still need for a lot of supplies for the victims and distribution issues continue.

Erdogan also announced the government will pay one year of rent for the earthquake victims, while using religious rhetoric to excuse what’s going on.