Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has defended his government’s response to two devastating earthquakes, saying it was impossible to prepare for the scale of the devastation.
At least 15,000 people have been confirmed dead in Turkey and northern Syria.
Critics claimed that the response of the emergency services was too slow and that the government was poorly prepared.
Mr Erdogan accepted that the government had faced some problems, but said the situation was now “under control”.
The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party, Kemal Kıldıoğlu, disagreed.
He said that if there is one person responsible for this, it is Erdogan.
The president dismissed the charge that there was a need for unity after the disaster, saying, “In times like these, I cannot stomach people campaigning negatively for political gain,” he told reporters at the office.
Thousands of survivors are spending a third night in a frozen state, with many buried under the rubble losing hope.
A World Health Organization official has warned that earthquake survivors could suffer significant injuries due to freezing temperatures.
“We have a lot of people who are now surviving in open, deteriorating and terrible conditions,” Robert Holden, WHO’s earthquake response event manager, said on Wednesday.
“We risk seeing a secondary disaster that could harm more people than the initial disaster if we don’t move with the same speed and intensity as we are doing on search and rescue.”
In nearby Syria, aid efforts have been complicated by years of fighting that has destroyed the country’s infrastructure.
The Bab al-Hawa crossing between Turkey and Syria has been closed since the earthquake because the roads were badly damaged.
While a senior UN official said the road could be accessible soon, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed the country was working to open two more border crossings to help aid flow into the country.
“There are some difficulties in terms of aid [reaching Syria] from Turkey and the international community. Therefore, efforts are being made to open two more border gates,” he said.
The European Union has confirmed it will send 3.5 million euros (3.1 million pounds) in aid to Syria, but said the aid must go to both government and rebel-held areas.
More than 1,500 people have been killed in Idlib province alone, and an adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said sanctions were preventing Syria from receiving much-needed aid.
“We don’t have enough bulldozers, we don’t have enough cranes, we don’t have enough oil because of the European and American sanctions,” said Bothina Shaban.
