Brussels, March 21 (BNA) Donors at a European Union-led conference on Monday pledged seven billion euros ($7.5 billion) to help rebuild Turkey after last month’s devastating earthquake, while Ankara estimated the costs at more than ten times that.
The February 6 earthquakes were the worst natural disaster to hit modern Turkey with more than 56,000 people killed in neighboring Turkey and Syria. The European Union and member Sweden hosted the conference on Monday to drum up support.
“Total pledges today amount to 7 billion euros,” said Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christson.
He said the money would “help people whose lives were destroyed in a matter of seconds and minutes” and give hope “that rebuilding dignity and daily life will be possible”.
The figure includes €1 billion from the European Union’s executive European Commission, half of which will be spent by the EU’s lending arm, the European Investment Bank (EIB), to suspend the bank’s near-total ban on financing Turkey in recent years.
German Foreign Minister Analina Berbock said that Germany will also double its aid for those affected in Turkey and Syria, to 240 million euros.
UNHCR will spend another €108 million on humanitarian aid and early recovery in Syria.
The United Nations Development Program estimated Turkey’s “total financial burden of the earthquake disaster” at $103.6 billion, and said that represented 9% of the country’s projected gross domestic product for 2023.
It is estimated that some 3.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes and most of them are now living in temporary shelters. It added that about 650,000 homes would have to be rebuilt.
Destructive work in Antakya Kucuksanı Sitsci Industrial Estate in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake in Antakya.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing the Brussels conference via video link, estimated the earthquake’s cost at $104 billion, saying Turkey would build 319,000 homes in the first year.
“It is not possible for one country to deal with a crisis of this magnitude on its own,” he said. “We will never forget the solidarity shown by all our friends…in these difficult days.”
But the European Union said it had mobilized several million euros in immediate aid and sent more than 1,500 rescuers to help in the hours and days after the earthquake in Turkey.
EU officials said the donors’ conference brought together about 400 international actors – states, regional organizations and non-governmental groups.
The United Nations Development Program estimated the recovery costs in Syria at $14.8 billion.
“Nine out of ten people in Syria today live below the poverty line,” said Achim Steiner of the United Nations Development Programme.
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