Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu last night updated the death toll in Hatay, one of Turkey’s most affected provinces, saying: “Whatever number we have, we will share it with our nation.”
The minister denied that the actual death toll was higher than the official one.
Turkey’s medical school said three weeks ago that while the official death toll was 41,000, about 60,000 people lost their lives in the earthquakes, but it will file a full report.
Read more: World Bank estimates earthquake damage in Turkey at $34 billion
This report, released yesterday, did not provide a total, but urged authorities to be transparent and clarify data on identified and unidentified bodies.
The report stated that “uncertainty over the number of earthquake deaths continues” and that the official death toll in Kahramanmaraş was around 6 thousand and 11 thousand burials were recorded in this community.
However, this inconsistency may be due to the fact that not all numbers have been reported yet or that the dead are buried in areas other than their places of death.
Soylu said the dead included 4,235 Syrians living as refugees in Turkey, fleeing civil war in their country.
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He also said that the government is fighting against disinformation and that computer crime officials and the prosecutor’s office put pressure on the administrators of 613 social network accounts, 151 people were arrested and 26 people were detained.
Debris removal work continues and 332 tent camps have been set up to house 1.5 million earthquake victims.
He also pointed out that more than two million people have left the affected areas where they live.
Source: Ultimahora
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Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
