Statement – Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, on the Türkiye and Syria earthquakes

I’m speaking to you from the WHO Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen, sitting together with the Minister of Health of Portugal Dr Manuel Pizarro, who just informed me that a team of 200 people is being dispatched for rescue support with medical teams as well. Thank you very much.  

With the numbers of people having succumbed to the initial impact of these earthquakes, my heartfelt condolences go to all who have lost family members, all who have lost their homes, all who have lost everything.  

My recognition and admiration go to the first responders, including the WHO personnel in our field office in Gaziantep, who themselves are displaced, many spending last night in their cars in cold wintry conditions, but already responding while their own lives remain in peril. 

This disaster, the latest in a string of natural or man-made disasters to hit the WHO European Region, and its scale, will be marked in history – not only for its devastation across southern Türkiye and northern Syria, but also for the speed of the national and the tremendous international support provided.  

According to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs today, 2660 personnel from at least 45 countries have already been or are preparing to be deployed to the disaster areas. Among them are WHO classified Emergency Medical Teams from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, the United States of America, Israel and many others.  

As details of the immediate human cost continue to emerge, the consequences on populations affected by these earthquakes will be long-lasting. But we can and we will make a difference to the lives of many.  

My teams in Gaziantep, in Ankara, in Istanbul and in Copenhagen are working on the ground, hand in hand, under the leadership of WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and very close with the teams of my dear brother Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari and the WHO Country Office in Syria.  

We are sending supplies as needed. We’re also increasing operations into neighbouring Syria from our field office in Gaziantep, which supports the whole-of-Syria response from Türkiye. 

I commend the Turkish authorities for mobilizing a remarkable response operation to save lives. I thank the Member States who have shown tremendous solidarity. I call on the international community to continue to increase its support, to ensure full coordination with the Government of Türkiye and WHO, and for us to work to ensure all unmet needs are filled and all further health impacts are prevented or mitigated.   

Thank you.