Earthquake death toll in Turkey rises to 43,556

ISTANBUL - The number of people killed in Turkey in this month's devastating earthquakes has risen to 43,556, the country's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said overnight.

Soylu told state broadcaster TRT Haber that there had been 7,930 aftershocks following the first quake on February 6 and that more than 600,000 apartments and 150,000 commercial premises had suffered at least moderate damage.

The powerful earthquake in Turkey and Syria will require a huge reconstruction operation at a scale “never seen before,” a top European Union official said.

European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi made the comment Wednesday during a visit to Ankara to prepare for an international donor’s conference, scheduled for March in Brussels. The conference aims to mobilize funds from the international community to support Turkey and Syria following the quake.

“We are all shocked by the horror the people of Turkey have to go through,” Varhelyi said during a joint news conference with Sweden’s minister for foreign trade and Turkey’s foreign minister. “This is why we are here to help; because we care, because we are friends, because we are allies.”

The commissioner continued: “My generation for sure has not seen such a devastating earthquake on the planet ... It will take a huge reconstruction operation. Maybe something, again, that we have not seen before.”

Last week the United Nations launched an appeal for $1 billion to help humanitarian agencies in Turkey assist millions of people affected by the earthquake.