40 seconds and thousands dead

In the early hours of February the sixth a strong earthquake hit both Syria and Turkey. Its epicenter was Alexandretta ( the land stolen from Syria by Turkey and renamed by the Turks as Hatay).Syria hadn’t experienced an earthquake for over two hundred and fifty years  and so was completely unprepared .With sanctions and a suffocating  siege even basic material for the aftermath of the earthquake was missing.Machinery necessary for removing the debris was slow and outdated- many resorted to digging with their bare hands.Freezing  temperatures accompanied this national disaster.Help from many countries poured into Syria-some of it immediate.Algeria,Oman and Iraq were amongst the first to offer help followed by most of the Arab countries .Later on,much later on some European countries helped and the suffocating Caesar Act and some sanctions related to humanitarian help  were put on pause for 180 days. Sadly Syrians were aware of the politicisation of the aid offered to them when compared to what was offered to Turkey.Some presidents even forgot to mention in their speeches that the earthquake had hit Syria too!!