On February 6th, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria, followed by powerful aftershocks. Thousands of buildings were destroyed, and as the days passed, the death toll continued to rise as rescue workers searched for survivors in the massive piles of rubble. The earthquake was one of the strongest to ever hit Turkey. One of the main contributing things that made this tragic event so deadly was that it occurred early in the morning, where people would be sleeping at the time. Additionally, it has been very cold and wet in Turkey lately, which has created poor conditions for rescue workers. Due to a previous earthquake in 1999, Turkey installed major regional building regulations to ensure that construction projects could withstand another earthquake.

However, older houses before 1999 were not up to code. It has been confirmed that up to 41,000 people have died from the earthquake. The earthquake has been noted as one of the worst earthquakes to hit in the last decade and what makes the earthquake even more damning is the fact that Turkey's elections are to soon start on May 14, and the result of that election — whether current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stays in power or not — has massive consequences for Turkey’s population, economy, currency, and democracy. It's important that we do everything in our power to help out Turkey and Syria, as they are in a very serious situation that everyone should pay attention to. Even if you don't live in Turkey, just donating money can seriously benefit those in need.

A link to where you can donate is listed here: 

https://support.savethechildren.org/site/Donation2?df_id=4988&mfc_pref=T&4988.donation=form1&cid=Paid_Search:Bing_Paid:Emer_Turkey:Nonbrand:020623&s_kwcid=AL!9048!3!!e!!s!!donate%20to%20turkey

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Sources: 

https://abcnews.go.com/International/live-updates/turkey-earthquake/?id=96913081

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/07/middleeast/earthquake-turkey-syria-why-deadly-intl/index.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/09/turkey-earthquake-comes-at-a-critical-time-for-the-countrys-future.html