Turkey earthquake: Community kitchen near epicentre helps provide local dishes for people left homeless
The aftermath of two powerful earthquakes which rocked Turkey and Syria has left many people homeless and exacerbated the risk of a widespread food and nutrition crisis, charities say.
Many were forced to live in cars and temporary tents, with no access to basic amenities such as showers or toilets, after the quake and its aftershocks last month destroyed, or catastrophically damaged, at least 156,000 buildings in Turkey and killed more than 50,000 people across Turkey and Syria.
Charities rushed to provide hot meals, loaves of bread and fresh water.
Among them, Action Against Hunger – which is supported by the Disaster Emergencies Committee – distributed ready-to-eat rations sourced from nearby cities including canned chickpeas, chicken, tuna, vegetables and fruit in disaster hotspots in southeast Turkey. Overall, Action Against Hunger has supplied 2,500kg of dry food and nearly 2,000kg of fresh food.
But while the food baskets are vital in helping survivors keep their strength up and stay healthy, they do not always contain food typically consumed by people in the region.
In the town of Beyoglu, near the southern city of Kahramanmaras and close to the epicentres of the tremors, Action Against Hunger helped set up a kitchen to provide local dishes and fresh food in a community centre next to a football field where people are camping after losing their homes.
The kitchen also helps people rebuild their sense of community in a time of crisis, says Ana Mora Segura, a spokesperson for Action Against Hunger who has been in Turkey since the earthquake struck.
She tells Sky News: “The places people have known their whole lives are either damaged or gone, which is very disruptive, so being able to get together and act on their own to provide for themselves is the first step of rebuilding the community.”
The kitchen has been providing 3,000 people a day with meals containing ingredients typically found in the Mediterranean diet, including fresh foods and local dishes containing oil, olives, yoghurt, fruit, vegetables and grains.
It also provides a sense of reassurance for those still suffering from the disaster.
“For me, this community kitchen provides us with security, because we know we’re getting hot food at a certain time every day and aid on a regular basis,” says one 20-year-old Turkish man who has been staying in the tents and using the kitchen since the earthquake.
“We also feel very safe in the tents because of the security forces in the area.”
Volunteers distribute food to families. Pic: Bradley Secker/DEC
Providing local food gives people sense of normality
While the foods found in a typical relief kit are much appreciated by those affected by the emergency, providing local foods has helped give people a sense of normality, says Cristina Izquierdo, the nutrition and health coordinator for Action Against Hunger’s emergency team.
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“These are some of the most resilient people,” she tells Sky News. “Some people bring everything they have to others… That sense of supporting each other really brings hope.
“People are grateful for the fact they are alive and are ready to support their community.”
The community centre also supports displaced people in other ways, through donated clothes, heaters and hygiene items such as sanitary pads, soap, baby wipes and nappies.
Akif left his restaurant in Soke and travelled with his friends to help set up the community kitchen. Pic: Ana Mora Segura/Action Against Hunger
‘I have work to do here’
One of the volunteers in the kitchen is Akif, who, as news of the disaster spread, heard help was needed urgently in Beyoglu, where a large number of houses were destroyed.
Leaving his restaurant in Soke, a city on Turkey’s Aegean coast, he travelled with his friends to help set up the community kitchen.
“My friends tell me to come back home, but my family is safe, that’s why I came,” Akif says. “I have work to do here.”
Akif and other volunteers also prepared packages to distribute in the nearby mountain villages and to families that have stayed near their collapsed homes.
Food aid being distributed by Action Against Hunger. Pics: Bradley Secker/DEC
Rebuilding a sense of community in a time of crisis
Ms Izquierdo says people were “very humble” and initially only asked for rice, but they were then asked about their local diet and the items they would like to see the charity help provide, including fresh food and vegetables, but also products for children such as yoghurt and other dairy products.
A range of dishes have been served, such as Turkish rice with sehriye, a type of pasta similar to vermicelli, and chickpea and tomato soup.
But Action Against Hunger warns the risk of widespread food insecurity has soared in the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, with access to food becoming even more difficult than it was before the disaster as many people have lost their homes, jobs and livelihoods. People in Syria also have to contend with the ongoing effects of the country’s 12-year civil war on top of the damage wrought by the earthquake.
World
Trump ‘very disappointed’ in Russian strikes on Ukraine and calls for Putin to ‘sit down and sign a deal’
Donald Trump has said he’s “very disappointed” with Russia as he continues to push for a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine.
On Saturday, the US president met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Vatican for their first face-to-face meeting since their explosive White House summit.
The Ukrainian president said the meeting ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral could end up being “historic.” Hours later, Mr Trump questioned Vladimir Putin’s appetite for peace in a Truth Social post.
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From Saturday: Trump meets Zelenskyy at funeral
Speaking before boarding Air Force One on Sunday, Mr Trump again said the meeting went well, and that the Ukrainian leader was “calmer”.
“I think he understands the picture, I think he wants to make a deal,” he said, before turning to Mr Putin and Russia.
“I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,” the US president said, adding he was “very disappointed that they did the bombing of those places (including Kyiv, where nine people were killed in a Russian airstrike on Friday) after discussions”.
However, Mr Trump said he thinks Mr Zelenskyy is ready to give up Crimea, which the Ukrainian leader has repeatedly said he would refuse to do.
He added that “we’ll see what happens in the next few days” and said “don’t talk to me about Crimea, talk to Obama and Biden about Crimea”.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, while Barack Obama was president.
Meanwhile, US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Sky’s US partner network NBC News that a peace deal to end the war was “closer in general than they’ve been any time in the last three years, but it’s still not there”.
“If this was an easy war to end, it would have been ended by someone else a long time ago,” he added on the Meet the Press show.
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It comes after North Korea confirmed it had deployed troops to fight for Russia, months after Ukraine and Western officials said its forces were in Europe.
State media outlet KCNA reported North Korean soldiers made an “important contribution” to expelling Ukrainian forces from Russian territory, likely to be the Kursk region.
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KCNA said leader Kim Jong Un made the decision to deploy troops to Russia and notified Moscow, and quoted him as saying: “They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland.”
It also quoted the country’s ruling Workers’ Party as saying the end of the battle to liberate Kursk showed the “highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship” between North Korea and Russia.
Last June, Mr Kim and Mr Putin signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty after a state visit – his first to the country in 24 years.
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From June 2024: Putin drives Kim around in luxury limo during state visit
The North Korean leader promised at the time “full support and solidarity to the Russian government, army and people in carrying out the special military operation in Ukraine”.
World
40 killed in blast at Iran’s biggest port as Tehran denies explosion ‘linked to fuel for missiles’
At least 40 people have been killed and several hundred more injured after an explosion and fire at Iran’s largest port, according to state media.
The blast, at the Shahid Rajaei container hub near the southern city of Bandar Abbas, happened on Saturday as Iran held a third round of talks with the US in Oman about Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Shipping containers burned, goods inside were badly damaged and the explosion was so powerful that windows several miles away were shattered, reports said.
Iranian Red Crescent rescuers work at the site of the blast. Pic: Reuters
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The blast at the Shahid Rajaei port happened as Iran and the US met for the third round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Helicopters and aircraft dumped water from the air on the blaze and by Sunday afternoon it was 90% extinguished, the head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society told state media.
Officials said port activities had resumed in unaffected parts of Shahid Rajaei.
Out of the 752 people who had received treatment for their injuries, 190 were still being treated in medical centres on Sunday, according to Iran’s crisis management organisation.
Chemicals at the port were suspected to have worsened the blast, but the exact cause of the explosion was not clear.
Iran’s defence ministry denied international media reports that the explosion may be connected to the mishandling of solid fuel used for missiles.
The reports were “aligned with enemy psyops [psychological operations]”, according to a ministry spokesperson, who told state TV the blast-hit area did not contain any military cargo.
Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
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According to the Associated Press, British security company Ambrey said that the port in March received sodium perchlorate, which is used to propel ballistic missiles and the mishandling of which could have led to the explosion.
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The Financial Times previously reported two Iranian vessels had shipped from China enough of the ingredient to propel up to 260 mid-range missiles.
It was reportedly to help Tehran replenish stocks after its missile attacks on Israel in 2024.
Iran’s military has sought to deny the delivery of sodium perchlorate from China.
Iran’s state-run Irna news agency reported on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin deployed several emergency aircraft to Bandar Abbas to provide help.
Anna and Irene have already been queuing for an hour or so, and they know they have a long wait still to come.
“Two hours, three hours, ten hours – what does it matter?” says Irena. “This is about eternity.”
They have come to Rome from Slovenia, Catholics who felt “Papa Francis would have wanted us to be here”.
People take photos of the grave of late Pope Francis inside St. Mary Major Basilica. Pic: AP/Andrew Medichini
A single white rose left on the tomb. Pic: Vatican
And under the sun outside Santa Maria Maggiore, they are awaiting the opportunity to visit his tomb.
Francis, says Irena, “was like a rainbow” who lit up the world. Anna nods along: “We are so happy to be here.”
The Pope’s tomb has become a new source of pilgrimage.
More than 30,000 people came to view it during the first morning after the Pope’s funeral, the queue snaking from the front of the mighty basilica and then up and down across the square at the back.
Some were curious visitors, others were devout followers – priests and nuns mixing in the queue with tourists and devoted locals.
All of these admired Francis; a very few actually knew him.
Father Alessandro Masseroni is a deacon who came to Rome to train to become a priest. On his phone, he shows me a photo of him and Francis, with the Pope offering words of encouragement.
Father Alessandro Masseroni meeting the Pope
He says: “I had the honour to serve Pope Francis and to talk to him many times and it was a special experience. I understand why he was so loved by all the people – he was simple and direct.
“He was sunny. St Francis was his role model and when I saw the first picture of the Pope’s tomb, the first thing I thought was of the tomb of St Francis of Assisi.
“Pope Francis will leave a legacy – it doesn’t end with his death but will continue.”
People attend the funeral of Pope Francis. Pic: Reuters/Yara Nardi
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Video shows Pope’s tomb
What are your emotions now, as you wait to visit his tomb, I ask. Father Alessandro pauses and smiles.
“Many emotions of course, but mainly, I think… thankfulness.”
That has been a recurring aspect among so many of the people we have met in Rome over the past week – the sense that sadness for Francis’s death is outweighed by the sense that his was a life that should be celebrated.
Volodymyr Borysyak flew in from London on the morning of the Pope’s funeral to make his third pilgrimage to Rome.
Barely had he arrived than his phone was stolen, a crime he responded to by praying for the thief.
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Volodymyr is a refugee from western Ukraine who worries that his home country’s plight is being forgotten by some of the world.
Now, the Pope who inspired him has died.
You might imagine that he would be resentful and angry. Instead, he is full of smiles.
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The farewell to Pope Francis
“We are happy to be the pilgrims of the world and this is a special day,” he tells me. “I know the pope used to pray in this basilica so that is why we will stay so long here to visit Santa Maria Maggiore.
“I think Pope Francis was, is and will be the pope for the world, because of the mercy of his heart and his love for everybody.”
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