Türkiye's quake death toll exceeds 35,000, as intensifying diplomacy helps mend ties between foes

ANKARA, Feb. 15: The death toll from last week's powerful earthquakes in southern Türkiye rose to 35,418 on Tuesday, while intensifying diplomacy between Türkiye and its previous foes helps further ease their ties.

A total of 105,505 people were injured in the tremors, of whom 13,208 are still receiving treatment in hospitals, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a press conference after a cabinet meeting.

In another speech made during the day, Erdogan said that the number of people rescued from the rubble was over 8,000.

The Turkish government has provided shelter for a total of 1.6 million earthquake victims, while Qatar has been sending 10,000 containers to Türkiye via ships, which will be turned into shelters.

Talking about foreign support and aid, Erdogan said teams from 84 countries participated in the quake rescue efforts in Türkiye.

At least 47,000 buildings were severely damaged in the quake-hit zone, the Turkish president said, pledging to start the construction of 30,000 new housing units in early March.

It is estimated that more than 2 million people evacuated from the quake zone, which is home to nearly 13 million people, he said.

Türkiye was hit by two massive earthquakes measuring 7.7- and 7.6-magnitude on Feb. 6, which affected a 500-km-wide region spanning 10 Turkish provinces.

With foreign rescue teams flocking to the country to aid the rescue efforts and world leaders extending condolences to the Turkish victims, the earthquake diplomacy paved the way for pushing forward Türkiye's normalization processes with its foes.