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Janae Pierre: Welcome to The Takeaway. I'm Janae Pierre in for Melissa Harris-Perry. Thanks for spending part of your day with us.

We begin with Turkey and Syria. An earthquake of a 7.8 magnitude shocked these countries along their shared border on February 6th. As of Friday morning, it's estimated that over 21,000 people have died. A young man named Yunus in Turkey told the BBC News about his fiancée.

Yunus' Interpreter: I was planning to dress her with a wedding dress, but now I'll dress her with a funeral shroud.

Janae Pierre: Thousands of buildings have collapsed, including hospitals and apartments, many with people still inside. Another man told Reuters about his wife, who was still trapped at that time.

Interpreter 2: I didn't get any response from her for three hours. I don't know. I can't bring myself to say, but I don't have hope.

Janae Pierre: An estimated 13.5 million people in Turkey and millions more in Syria have been put at risk. This woman displaced to a temporary shelter in Idlib Syria spoke to PBS NewsHour.

Interpreter 3: We don't have any money to spend. We don't have food. We, women, are suffering in the cold and the rain. Here, no one is helping us.

Janae Pierre: Aid workers and civilians alike have been working nonstop over the past few days to rescue survivors from the rubble, but it has been too slow for many, and supplies like food and warm shelter have been limited as temperatures in some areas have dipped below -21 degrees Fahrenheit. In areas of Syria already destabilized by the 12-year war, it's even slower. There's just one border crossing open, and many countries, including the US, have sanctions against routing financial aid to the government.

Interpreter 4: Here in Idlib, the children have been under the rubble for three days. No one is helping them. Why?

Janae Pierre: Time is running out for those still alive. As cranes lift slabs of cement and jackhammers smash through rubble, rescue efforts are punctuated with stretches of silence as rescuers listen for any noise to indicate that those trapped are still alive. I'm joined now by Shirin Jaafari, a reporter covering the Middle East at The World, produced by our partners, PRX. Shirin, thanks for joining me.

Shirin Jaafari: Thank you so much.

Janae Pierre: You're in Boston now, but in the past, you've reported from Gaziantep, which was the epicenter of the earthquake. Can you tell us about what the city was like when you were there?

Shirin Jaafari: Yes, absolutely. I was there in the spring of 2021. I went there to report on the situation of the refugees who had fled the war in Syria and came over the border to Turkey, to Gaziantep to start a new life. When you drive into Gaziantep, it's a beautiful area. The countryside, there was a lot of lush green farmlands at that time because it was spring. The trees had blossomed. This area of Gaziantep is known for the farmlands but also the pistachio orchards, so it's really a nice area, a beautiful area.

Then, the food there is really delicious. Gaziantep is known for its delicious baklavas, the pastry that is known in the Middle East. Then you have the citadel, the ancient citadel that has been destroyed now. It's a really ancient city. It's a beautiful city. You have the bazaar with the spices and the smell and the knickknacks that you can find in the bazaar. It's also home to millions of Syrians who had fled the war and they have taken shelter in this area.

I spoke with a man who was a farmer. He had fled his home in Syria and built a new life in Turkey. He had met this Turkish farmer, and they became friends. Interestingly, they didn't speak each other's language, but they had somehow made it possible to understand each other. He was working at this guy's farm, and they were best friends. It was such a beautiful friendship, and I reported on that. These are the type of people that have been hit by this earthquake. The Syrian refugees who live in this part of Turkey, they already live in very difficult circumstances.

Most of them are living in homes and houses that were built not up to standard because they were just desperate to find someplace to live. Now, their homes have been destroyed, and we are talking about people who don't have much to fall back on when their homes have been destroyed.

Janae Pierre: Yes, and I understand that you've been speaking with survivors in Syria. Can you tell me about the family you spoke to?

Shirin Jaafari: Yes, absolutely. [unintelligible 00:05:25] is the person that I talked to on Monday, and he told me that he has been trying to find people from under the rubble. At the time the earthquake hit, he told me that he was so shocked that he couldn't decide what to do. He didn't know if he should leave the house because he wasn't sure if it was an airstrike, because this area of Syria, the fighting goes on. Even just hours after the earthquake hit, we heard reports of another airstrike, which is just so surprising. He told me, "I wasn't sure if I should leave my home or I should stay," and then he decided to stay with his two kids.

His wife is pregnant as well, and luckily, their home wasn't destroyed. Then when he stepped out and he started to drive around the area, he saw the level of devastation and he just realized what had happened. He told me people were digging their relatives from under the rubble with their bare hands. They were putting their ears to the rubble just to be able to hear if anybody is alive. If I can just tell you a bit about this part of Syria, the Idlib area in Syria is not under control of the Syrian government. It's run by this group called Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham which is like a rebel group, the opposition group.

They fought with the Syrian government. At one point, they had connections with Al-Qaeda, but in 2016, they said, "No, no, no, we don't have any connections with Al-Qaeda anymore, and we are going to be in charge of this area in Syria." The problem is that they are not able to run an area where 4 million people live. They have no capacity to help these people who are now desperate. We are talking about also millions of people living in this area of Idlib who have been displaced by war several times in their lifetime.

I've been talking to people who have moved several times in different parts of Syria, displaced, and now they had started a life in Idlib and now this earthquake. Once again, they're homeless.

Janae Pierre: I want to talk a bit about the rescue efforts. Are rescue efforts reaching the hardest-hit areas in the region at all?

Shirin Jaafari: Turkey has been getting more help than Syria. It's because the airports are operational, the government is operational. The roads are tough to access, but certain rescue teams have been able to reach most of the affected areas. We're also talking about the really large area. We're talking about thousands of miles, several cities, provinces. It's a big area that's been affected, but when you talk about Syria, it's a different story.

There are several crossing points from Turkey into Syria, but the problem is that the Syrian government doesn't allow aid to get into Syria from those crossing points because it just wants to have control on where the aid gets to and just wants to have control over the aid that gets into the country. There is one border crossing that is open, Bab al-Hawa, and as of yesterday, four days after the earthquake, we had about six trucks that were able to get in through that border crossing and there were some other help that got into Idlib today. Compared to the need, it is just the need is so huge, and this help is not really going to be making much of a difference.

Janae Pierre: We're updating you on the aftermath of this week's earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Quick break, we'll be right back after this. All right, we're back with Shirin Jaafari from The World. We're talking about Syria and Turkey's recovery after the earthquake this week. For those who are indeed rescued, what kind of infrastructure is even left to give them medical care or address their basic needs?

Shirin Jaafari: Nothing. Nothing. I spoke with a doctor in Idlib on Monday, and he was just telling me that he's been working in this war zone for seven years. He said, "What I'm seeing today is nothing like I've seen before." He said one problem is that the number of people coming into a hospital is just so many people that need care. The other problem is that other healthcare facilities, hospitals, have been destroyed during the war. They've been bombed. They had to go underground to be able to operate. I reported on these hospitals who had gone underground to be able to operate to not be bombarded.

The other problem is that a lot of doctors and healthcare workers left because it's a war zone. They wanted to be able to raise their families in a safe place. They left for Europe, other countries. The need is huge, and there is this just one hospital in that area where this doctor is working. He said, "We only have a few ventilators, and we're deciding, okay, who can be saved? Who practically can be saved?" He said, "Yes, we're standing at the entrance of the hospital triaging and deciding who we can help and who we cannot." He was just devastated honestly.

Janae Pierre: Turkey has had an earthquake tax in place since 1999. Has the government been able to draw on this to get aid out?

Shirin Jaafari: The earthquake that hit Turkey in 1999 really brought about some changes. There were stricter building codes that were introduced under tax you mentioned, but the question is, how much of that is being implemented? We have heard from people who say the buildings were just built not up to standard. This is part of the problem. That's why we see these buildings just crumble when the earthquake happened because they were just not built up to standard. The question is, where are these building codes implemented? It seems like not.

Janae Pierre: There have already been so many people displaced and so many ripple effects on neighboring countries from the conflict in Syria. How will the aftermath of the earthquake impact the region?

Shirin Jaafari: I think there's going to be a huge, huge need for people to be able to find a place to stay, to be able to eat and have clean water. This is an area like I said, 97% of the population in Idlib live in extreme poverty, and 80% of them rely on food assistance. That's according to the UN. This is before the earthquake. Now with this earthquake impacting so many people at such a scale, there's going to be a huge need for help, immediate help, because every hour counts.

Janae Pierre: Yes. Looking ahead here, what must be done to make recovery from something of this magnitude possible?

Shirin Jaafari: I think it's a collective effort. Every country in the region can help if they can. They are sending help, but I think that, again, the need is on such a scale that every country that is able to help must help.

Janae Pierre: Shirin Jaafari covers the Middle East for The World from PRX. Shirin, thanks so much for joining me.

Shirin Jaafari: It was a pleasure.

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