>

What about Syria?
It's almost like being in a really cool coalition has benefits >

Of course, and you can repay the favour by approving the new members already. >

Finland, Sweden, AND Ukraine all jumped to help them.... Ukraine who is constantly being opposed by Erdogan and is in the middle of being invaded is rushing to help them...
Erdogan is going to be in quite a bind diplomatically in a little bit.. not to mention that this disaster will CRIPPLE their economy (turkey just lost all its bargaining chips, they need MASSIVE amounts of outside aid, that aid does not come without strings - Edit: since the bulk of it will come from the EU, US and Nato) >

It’s like this was a totally a God send lol >

Hundreds, maybe thousands of people are dead.
I would not consider that a "God send [sic]." >

I mean.. did you even read the bible? >

It does seem to be right up his alley. >

As a Christian, that was also one of my very first thoughts
Also that there being numerous earthquakes in big name places reminds me of some of the stuff prophesized in the Bible >

People always forget God kills more people than Satan in the Bible even without counting when he killed everyone on Earth who didn't join his yacht club. >

That's because Satan doesn't ever kill anyone physically, he only leads them into temptation and spiritual death
Also he's like barely in the Bible. I can think of only 2 places where he is; the Book of Job, and in the Gospels when he shows up and tempts Jesus >

"Following an international appeal for help, Turkey's President Erdogan said 45 countries had offered support."  As per BBC report this morning. >

Meanwhile the most critical places in Turkey still do not receive help and it is announced as if they have enough teams. Erdogan can keep asking for help, he’s done enough to prevent correct course of actions in the most critical time.
Edit: If anybody downvotes this I suggest you figure out a way to understand Turkish news and listen to peoples’ cries from the absolutely destroyed cities. People are begging for help through news channels while the government bodies announce and claim they’ve sent help everywhere possible. >

It's worth noting VA-TF1, and all of the other FEMA USAR teams, have enough supplies upon deployment to be self sufficient for 72-96 hours, thus not relying upon local resources that are better spent caring for others. >

Gonna take a lot more than 3 or 4 days to dig out the reportedly tens of thousands of trapped folks. Hope they've got a supply chain planned. >

Part of their SOP is just that. The 3 to 4 days is the most crucial part of USAR. >

Oh yeah.. The recovery becomes a lot less time sensitive after that many days, huh.. :( >

Ya it changers from rescure to recovery... >

It's winter, I'm afraid most needed won't make it through this night alone, I hope they do stay alive >

When tragedy strike, politics go out and aid from many countries go in to help people in distress. >

Not so sure Erdogan would say the same.. I wonder if he'll decline help from Sweden now since they're not worthy of his company.. >

It would be pretty cool if Sweden sent some support. >

And Finland.  It’s a great solidarity moment for everyone to help out without being political.  The victims need help desperately, especially with winter conditions. >

Too bad shithead Erdogan won't return favours.. >

I imagine that NATO will get word to Erdogan that this assistance comes at an unlisted price, which is that Turkey needs to drop their absurd opposition to Sweden’s joining the pact. >

They won't. They're not going to use Sweden joining NATO against average Turkish citizens dying. They'll hope it'll have some effect though. >

I think we’re saying the same thing, but in different ways. There won’t be any public quid pro quo. 
But I’m absolutely certain that NATO will remind the Turkish government via backchannels later that they were done a huge favor, and now it’s time to repay a favor to the alliance. 
Is it distasteful? Yes. Is it the way the world works?  Yes. Geopolitics is a nasty business. >

I don't think its distasteful if they're doing it after.  If someones behaving like an ass and you go and help them, and later on tell them to stop being an ass reminding them of the help..... I think that's the most tasteful way you could handle that. >

This earthquake is horrible, I dont think a lot of westerners are truly aware of how bad it is. A lot of these cities look like they were bombed WW2 style. Like a nuke went off or something. hell I've seen towns on the front line of Ukraine bombed by Russia constantly that look more livable.
Would be cool to see the US/EU send a bunch of soldiers to distribute aid and remove rubble. >

The death toll is over 3,700 right now. It is only going to get worse. >

I think now would be a good time for Sweden and Finland to go the extra mile in assisting. Take away all of the bullshit rhetoric that Ederogen was trying to use to get re elected. >

Would be a very opportunistic moment for Sweden to deliver a swift care package. >

We are just sending money so far, we will respond according to what Turkey needs and asks for going forward. This isn’t really related to our current stale mate though, we usually send aid when disaster strikes regardless of our personal feelings towards a country’s government. >

I saw where Sweden sent tents (like tent city tents) already. >

Good! I hope they end up being useful! >

From the sound of it they should be very useful. So many people are homeless now. >

Yeah and of course the cold makes it even worse, just awful all around. I hope they can reach people with the aid, I read that many roads and airports are destroyed as well but maybe military helicopters could work? >

I think I heard that was a possibility. >

I feel bad for the poor people in Syria. They have a crap government and no one wants to help them because of that fact. >

I thought it was just Turkey? >

turkey last year requested their english name to be changed from turkey to turkiye to prevent people from getting the country mixed with the bird. But I think that most organizations and people will still call it turkey over the harder name with a special letter >

Yeah and people don’t want to be told by Erdogan what to do >

Also the fact that people don't appreciate being told to change their own language. Just about every language has their own way of spelling and pronouncing other country's names and it's rather entitled to request that they change it out of vanity. >

Sometimes it works though. Have you noticed how much more prominent it's spelled Kyiv in English articles now instead of Kiev in the past year? >

People had a bit of a special interest in doing that, considering the circumstances. No longer letting Russia's influence dictate how we spell the name of a Ukrainian city is just a small little rebellion. >

Sweden, Finland and Ukraine be like: “Wellllity wellity wellity…” >

Turkey has been attacked by Mother Nature, so I guess we can invoke Article 5? >

We’ve been attacking Mother Nature for centuries. >

Bitch had it coming. What sort of psychopath invents loa loa worms? Or botflies? >

Or worst of all: humans. >

It makes NATO mean something, which is great