Some of the most powerful Middle East earthquakes in decades killed more than 1,000 people in Turkey and Syria on Monday and forced a halt in crude oil flows to a regional export terminal.
A pre-dawn earthquake hit near the Turkish city of Gaziantep with a 7.7 magnitude, killing more than 1,000 people in Turkey and about 370 in Syria. Hours later, a second 7.5 temblor struck nearby and was felt in the Turkish capital Ankara, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) away.
“We’ve been shaken by the strongest disaster in a century,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. Speaking before the second quake, he said it was impossible to say what the death toll would rise to.
Turkey stopped oil flows to Ceyhan export terminal on the Mediterranean coast as a precaution, although no leaks were detected on the pipelines feeding crude to the facility, according to an official with direct knowledge of the matter. Iraqi Kurdistan suspended oil exports through Turkey to the terminal, the Ministry of Natural Resources in Kurdistan said.
Ceyhan is a vital hub for oil sales from northern Iraq and from Azerbaijan. The port exported over 1 million barrels a day in January, or 1% of global oil supplies. The news helped push up global oil prices on Monday.
At least four Turkish airports were damaged, said authorities, who were tracking calls for help on social media from people who were believed to be trapped under the rubble. More than 2,800 buildings have collapsed in Turkey, Erdogan said.
Turkey lies in one of the world’s most active seismic zones and is crossed by numerous fault lines. The disaster affected several southern Turkish provinces stretching hundreds of kilometers, where about 13 million people are bracing for colder winter temperatures. Erdogan, who is facing general elections in May, dispatched several cabinet ministers to the area.
Some parts of the local gas network were hit, stopping supply to Gaziantep, Hatay and Kahramanmaras provinces, Turkish state pipeline company Botas said.
Turkey hopes to restore gas flows within 48 hours, the Turkish official with direct knowledge of the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The first quake, which injured more than 5,000 people in Turkey, was felt as far as Egypt and Cyprus. It was the worst in Turkey since a 1939 earthquake that killed about 33,000 people.
In 1999, twin tremors hit the areas surrounding Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city and killed about 18,000 people. That disaster overwhelmed the center-left coalition in charge at the time, paving the way for a deep financial crisis that helped Erdogan’s AK Party to come to power.
Erdogan said Turkey had received offers of help from 45 countries, along with the NATO and the European Union. The US was assessing options to help the most affected, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement, citing orders by President Joe Biden. Israel said it had ordered a rapid aid program.
Turkey’s stock exchange Borsa Istanbul halted trading of some stocks and the main index fell as much as 4.7%. The Turkish lira was little changed at 18.83 per dollar.
The quake damaged airports in Adiyaman, Kahramanmaras, Malatya and Hatay. Some hospitals and a port also partially collapsed in Hatay, authorities said. Some highways were also damaged.
Turkey hosts the biggest refugee population in the world and many of the 3.7 million registered Syrian refugees are concentrated in areas affected by the quake.
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(With assistance from Patrick Sykes, Beril Akman and Tugce Ozsoy.)
