The border crossing between Turkey and Armenia opened on Saturday for the first time in 35 years to make way for the Armenian convoy of five trucks with aid, as announced by the Turkish delegate for dialogue with the neighboring country, Serdar Kil?ç. The only previous occasion when the Alican border was opened was in December 1988, when Turkey provided assistance after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that devastated the cities of Spitak and Gyumri, in western Armenia, and which left consequences until very recent dates. The earthquake caused some 25,000 deaths in the small country.
That brief opening marked a lapse between the two countries confronted by the Turkish non-recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide, in addition to the fact that Mount Ararat – almost sacred to Armenians – is today in Turkish territory. “I will always remember the generous help sent by the people of Armenia”, Serdar Kil?ç said on this occasion, giving thanks.
This seismic diplomacy has been replicated in Greece. The Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias, was received yesterday at the head of a team of rescuers by his Turkish counterpart, Mehvut Cavusoglu, in the city of Antakya. Greece immediately offered help to the country with which it has the worst relations and Dendias has been the first European minister to travel to Turkey.
Something similar happened in 1999. In a period of one month, from August to September, Turkey and Greece suffered two separate earthquakes and exchanged aid. Mehvut Cavusoglu recalled yesterday, according to the AP agency, that being then an ordinary citizen he wrote to the American magazine Time saying that “we should not wait for another earthquake to improve our relations. Now I repeat it.” His Greek counterpart Dendias replied that “I totally subscribe to what Mevlut has said.”
The relaxed climate was not reproduced, on the other hand, with regard to Syria. Martin Griffiths, of the United Nations, recognized that “people feel abandoned, and rightly so” in northwestern Syria, especially the rebel province of Idlib, the most affected and neighboring Turkey’s Hatay. On the one hand, the EU envoy to Syria, Dan Stonescu, urged the Damascus government to act in good faith and send aid to that territory. On the other, the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al Sham threatens not to allow it.
When the official death count reached 33,000 – some 29,700 in Turkey and 3,500 in Syria – miracles still occurred on the seventh day. In the city of Andiyaman, two sisters and a seven-year-old boy were rescued after 152 and 153 hours. In Hatay, the same thing happened with a 10-year-old girl, a mother and her five-year-old daughter, and a baby in different buildings, and at other points at least three other people, between 35 and 64 years old.
Germany offered yesterday to welcome Turks and Syrians who can prove they have family in the country for three months without a visa. In recent days there have been requests in Germany in this regard. The problem for many survivors is that they will have lost their passport in the ruins.
