A Massive Earthquake Makes the World Temporarily Forget the Blunders of the Turkish and Syrian Governments

Looking back at the performance of this blog, peak interest was achieved back in 2011, when the Great Tohoku Earthquake disrupted the normalcy for the entire northern half of Japan and showed just how even in the most stable of societies, major natural disasters can spark a wave of reflections on just how fragile human civilization can be. That series of posts on the aftermath of the Earthquake, including broken supply chains that led to shortages in normally well-stocked Japanese shops and the fraught mental state of normally calm Japanese people, among others, will always be a highlight of this blog.

That sensationalization of a natural disaster always makes for great viewership, and the recent earthquake in Turkey and Syria is no different. As the death toll climbs above 11,000, news media from around the world have spared no expense airing footage from the disaster zone. From scenes of miraculous rescues of children from concrete rubbles to panoramic views of flattened urban neighborhoods, the latest in devastation is constantly beamed across the internet and TV screens to people around the world. Not since the outbreak of COVID-19, perhaps, has the world so been englued to a natural disaster in recent years.

The tragedy of the massive death toll will offer some respite to the highly political ways that Turkey and Syria have been presented in international media in recent years. For one thing, Turkey has played a dubious role in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war, providing Ukraine with weapons while providing an economic lifeline to many Russians fleeing conscription and autarky at home. It has simultaneously been praised for helping to negotiate an agreement that allowed Ukrainian grain exports to flow again to a hungry world but invited criticism for vetoing further NATO involvement in the war as a major member.

Indeed, Turkish president Recep Erdogan has met repeated skepticism for prioritizing his own dictatorial and Islamist instincts over NATO and regional norms. His efforts to block Sweden and Finland from joining NATO are not rooted in the logic of security but in pandering to a domestic audience angry about Kurdish separatism and an international Muslim one skeptical of Nordic largesse toward far-right individuals prone to extremist religious insults. Both help advance his own agenda as a decisive leader at home and abroad, at the expense of diplomatic niceties and support for minorities.

Go back further and plenty more complaints about Turkey can be had on the international stage. His support for rebels in Nagorno-Karabakh, Syria, and Libya, among others, who been a source of headaches for those seeking regional peace and stability. His willingness to cut deals with Western enemies from Russian president Putin to Syrian leader Assad, all the while ruining the Turkish economy through an unorthodox fixation with low-interest rates to tackle eye-watering inflation has pretty much killed whatever chances remain of Turkey ever becoming a European Union member.

With the earthquake, all that hostility seems to be forgotten, at least temporarily. For a moment, reports of deaths and destruction are interspersed with reports of people around the world donating to the rescue and reconstruction efforts while remembering the nice vacations they had in Turkey before. Never mind the fact that the earthquake is conspicuously close to regions where the Turkish military has been almost constantly at war with Kurdish separatists on both sides of the Turko-Syrian border. Little mention of politics is seen in the earthquake reports.

The earthquake maybe even more of a Godsend for Assad. In the decade-long civil war that saw the rise and fall of the Islamic State and the many Islamist and pro-Western factions seeking his head, the embattled Syrian president not only emerged largely victorious but even managed to regain favor with other Arab states that previously predicted his downfall. If international efforts help Syria recover from the earthquake, it might not be far away from the day that an international post-war reconstruction campaign help to bring a war-weary and increasingly impoverished population back into the global fold.

Without a doubt, a massive earthquake that kills tens of thousands is a tragedy that should be lamented. But for both the Turkish and Syrian governments, battling years of deteriorating international image, becoming the victims of a natural disaster will bring temporary or even long-lasting respite. As international media reports of disaster zones court sympathy from a global audience, many would forget that the two countries are still involved in many unpalatable political events that have far-reaching consequences. It is funny how the news cycle works...