International System and Earthquake

  Bu yazı 16/02/2023 tarihinde yayınlanmıştır.

*Doç.Dr. Güray ALPAR / SDE Başkanı

The 7.7-magnitude earthquake that took place on the Eastern Mediterranean Fault Line (EMF) on 06 April 2023 and directly affected more than 25 million people, especially in Türkiye and Syria; It was felt in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, The Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot State. A second earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6, which occurred while the rescue efforts were in progress, further increased the destruction. Richard Walker, Professor of Tectonics at Oxford University, who made a statement on the subject, said that this earthquake is one of the largest land earthquakes in the world in terms of its size and proximity to the surface.

The suffering is great. All Türkiye shared the pain; All the people, from the small to the big, from the poor to the rich, have tried to support the region and the people in this region as much as possible as a unity. It is impossible to forget the images, especially of the late and children trying to help. Apart from this, another remarkable point is that after the earthquake disaster, the search and rescue teams of the whole world rushed to help the disaster area.

In this context: Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czechia, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Italy, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Malta, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Palestine, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Tajikistan, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Turkish Cypriot State, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Qatar, UAE, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA, Uzbekistan and Venezuela sent search and rescue teams to Türkiye in the first place (it is known that more than 20 countries took initiatives later on) and that dozens of other countries applied to Türkiye, to send aid materials. Among them, besides the people of countries that have come out of war like Afghanistan, there are also countries at war like Ukraine. The entire Turkish world has stood by Türkiye from the first moment in these difficult days. In addition, from the images reflected in the media; It was seen that people from many African and Asian countries, starting with Somalia and Sudan, were praying for Türkiye, Pakistani Ministers sent a salary each, and all Pakistani civil servants sent a portion of their salary to their brothers who were damaged by the earthquake. We can add hundreds of similar examples and people of the country. Undoubtedly, these supports extending to Türkiye from almost all parts of the world, from Latin America to Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia, have a different meaning. This is related to the understanding of humanitarian aid and humanitarian foreign policy that Türkiye has provided to people in difficult situations all over the world, without any reciprocity and without discrimination of religion, language or race, and can be evaluated as a result of the concept of geography of the heart created by this.

This interlocking will perhaps lead to the spread of human-centered values ​​that the whole world has long desired and will constitute a start for the new security architecture. Our hope is to come out of the current systemic crisis, which has brought nothing but pain and tears to humanity in the international system, by realizing the needed transformations, and take a moment to the concept of human security, which is defined as "a child kept alive, a disease that does not spread, an ethnic tension that does not explode, and an unoppressed human spirit".