Kuruluş Osman actor Çağdaş Çankaya – and his wife Zilan Tigris – are among those killed in the disastrous Turkiye earthquake, it emerged on Monday.
Çankaya played the role of the Konya Palace soldier in the famous series depicting the Ottoman empire.
The fatality toll from the Turkey-Syria quake has climbed to over 37,000, surpassing the casualty figures from Japan’s 2011 Fukushima disaster (estimated at 19,000).
In Turkey, more than 31,000 people have died, according to multiple reports in the international media. In neighbouring Syria, more than 5,000 lives have been lost — in government and rebel-held territories — as per various reports.
Experts warn that casualty figure would continue to rise. Images and footages of the quake shows destroyed buildings and homes, and narrate a tale of misery. Rescuers are desperately looking for survivors and any sign of life in the calamity-hit areas.
International Committee of the Red Cross chief Mirjana Spoljaric has called for “full humanitarian access”. In a video message from Aleppo, Syria she highlighted the “layers of suffering” of residents of the war torn city.
Meanwhile, White Helmets criticised the UN for delay in humanitarian response. “The UN has committed a crime against the Syrian people in the northwest,” the NGO chief Raed Al-Saleh said. He accused the international body of botching its earthquake rescue and relief response in rebel-held areas of northwestern Syria.
The White Helmets group said that UN agencies had not delivered any quake-specific relief to survivors in northwestern Syria since the disaster hit before dawn on Monday. The first aid convoy of the UN entered Syria on 9 February, and the second on Friday.
Leveraging years of emergency humanitarian and medical assistance experience gleaned during Syria’s over-decade-long civil war, the organisation has been spearheading rescue efforts in rebel-controlled territories with virtually zero international assistance.