The earthquake of two Mondays ago not only collapsed hundreds of buildings previously martyred by the Syrian war. It also shook the conscience of his Arab neighbors, some of whom had been boycotting Bashar al-Assad for 12 years.
For the first time since 2011, a Saudi Arabian plane, with tons of aid, was landing in the country, in Aleppo. Also for the first time since then, a Jordanian foreign minister was in Damascus. Shortly before, his Emirati counterpart had done it again.
The United Arab Emirates is, in fact, the one leading the thaw with the Syrian regime. Abu Dhabi has offered him one hundred million dollars – a quarter of what the UN requested – and has practically established a humanitarian airlift.
Even the Egyptian general Abdul Fatah al Sisi has placed a call, for the first time, on El Asad. The latter, meanwhile, agreed on Tuesday that UN aid could enter the area of Syria it does not control through three border crossings, instead of one.
On the other side, in the province of Idlib, the Syria that lost the war bustles, with its displaced people, its Sunni extremists in the orbit of Al Qaeda, its women dressed in black from head to toe and their white helmets. A representation of this rescue service was congratulated yesterday by the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, at the Incirlik NATO base, on his first visit to Turkey.
On Thursday, in his first televised message after the quake, the heir to Hafez al-Assad admitted that "the scale of the disaster exceeds the resources available." Although he offered "an opportunity" to face "accumulated problems", such as sanctions.
In fact, Washington had already said that it will allow transactions for humanitarian purposes for three months.
Even in “rebel” Syria it was admitted these days that the current political limbo has made rescue operations difficult. Not to mention the anomaly that the two countries united by the catastrophe, Syria and Turkey, do not maintain relations (although something is moving). The fact is that the fragmentation and prostration of Syria, prolonged by third parties and by El Asad's own rejection of a political negotiation, has cost lives.
Also, the aid received by Syria has arrived later and in smaller amounts than that supplied by many other donors to Turkey. Even so, dozens of planes have been sent to Damascus, Aleppo and Latakia by friendly countries such as Russia, Iran, Iraq, Algeria, Armenia, India, Bangladesh or Venezuela. As well as Japan and Italy, via Beirut.
The paradox is that, although the earthquake has killed six thousand people in Syria, many more Syrians have died or are still under the rubble in Turkey. Ankara is now allowing the surviving refugees to return to their country, promising to readmit them within three months.
Hence, thousands of Syrians have crossed the border, lacking a safe haven in Turkey. Although two thousand feet first, to be buried.
Everyone knows what they are exposed to. Aleppo had a cholera outbreak last year and the Red Cross has predicted epidemics if the removal of debris is not accelerated.
On the other hand, the quake could have buried Recep Tayyip Erdogan's threats of a fourth operation by the Turkish army in Syria. The head of the opposition, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, has already said that if he wins the elections, he will negotiate peace with Assad and the return of the Syrians.
Reconstructions are accumulating in the Syria of El Asad and postponing them takes its toll.
