On Sunday, a powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit eastern Turkey, collapsing apartment buildings and cutting communications and power in the city of Van and surrounding cities. Early today, the Prime Minister of Turkey declared the death toll at 264 and the number of wounded at 1,300, as the number keeps rising quickly and the full picture of the damage is still unclear. After the earthquake, more than a dozen aftershocks were felt, the strongest one at a magnitude of 5.7, shook Van just before midnight local time.
International relations can be a touchy subject when asking for help after a disaster between countries that have a bad history. Israel, with which Turkey recently downgraded diplomatic relations, offered help dealing with the quake, as did the U.S., Greece and several other nations. Relations between Israel and Turkey have deteriorated sharply over Israel's refusal to apologize for the killing of nine pro-Palestinian activists from Turkey by Israeli commandos last year, when the troops boarded a Turkish aid ship that was seeking to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. Therefore, politics can become an issue when dealing with emergency relief because not all counties are on the best terms with each other, despite the type of emergency.
Article here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204777904576650613185173524.html
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