Live updates: Follow the latest on the earthquake in Turkey and Syria
The night before a devastating earthquake struck southern Turkey, Sinan Guneri went to bed anticipating a normal week serving kebabs from his restaurant in Diyarbakir’s Yenisehir neighbourhood.
Within 12 hours he was frantically organising shipments of food and aid from the takeaway business, helped by staff, friends and an ad hoc collection of local business people.
Their efforts are just one example of the way people across the country have thrown themselves into the aid effort. Moved by the plight of fellow citizens caught in a disaster that had claimed more than 24,000 lives in the country as of Saturday evening, countless numbers have come together independently of any official prompting to help in any way they can.
“We began by distributing food to all the people we could — emergency workers and ordinary people working on the collapsed buildings, as well as those who were made homeless by the earthquake,” Mr Guneri told The National on Saturday.
His unimposing restaurant, with a sign featuring cartoon character Obelix hanging above its glass door, has now become an informal distribution centre for all kinds of aid supplies, not just food but also tents, blankets and other necessities.
“Three or four trucks left yesterday for Adiyaman,” Mr Guneri said from his business, sitting near sacks of potatoes and crates of bread waiting to be loaded. “So far we have sent nine trucks to places outside Diyarbakir, as well as helping those in our city.”
Diyarbakir, the unofficial capital of Turkey’s Kurdish population, is the easternmost of 10 provinces within the disaster zone. Although just a handful of buildings in the city collapsed, the death toll across the province reached 219 by Saturday.
“We have 13 people here working to provide aid, many of them my family members, but we are working alongside a volunteer group of 60 or 70 people,” Mr Guneri said.
“We distributed 2,000 loaves of bread on the first day. Some people send us money which we use to buy blankets and heaters. The restaurant has become an aid distribution point. We work from early to late — I think I’ve slept about 10 hours over the last six days.
We work from early to late — I think I’ve slept about 10 hours over the last six days
Sinan Guneri,
restaurant owner in Diyarbakir
“I get 650 to 700 calls a day and we co-ordinate with people on Twitter and WhatsApp. One WhatsApp group has 1,009 members.”
As the government faced criticism for failing to reach the disaster area in time, other groups also launched far-reaching aid operations.
The Diyarbakir City Protection and Solidarity Platform, a collection of civil society groups ranging from the city’s bar association to trade unions that was formed two months ago, is running its operation from the offices of the city’s Chamber of Commerce.
“The earthquake happened at 4.17 in the morning and by five o’clock we started work for food distribution, shelters, heating and tents,” said Sirac Celik, a trade union worker and member of the platform’s crisis desk.
“Our first priority was Amed and now we’re directing support to other cities,” he added, using the Kurdish name for Diyarbakir. “We’re focused on places like Malatya, Maras, Hatay and Adiyaman.
We now have thousands of volunteers bringing in supplies and sending them out, working 24/7 every day
Sirac Celik,
trade union worker
“We now have thousands of volunteers bringing in supplies and sending them out, working 24/7 every day.”
On the floor below the crisis centre, where a fog of cigarette smoke hangs over weary workers fuelled by black tea sipped from disposable cups, families have laid out blankets and a few belongings rescued from homes damaged by the quake and considered too dangerous to return to.
Evin Seker, 30, who usually works for a law firm, has been organising food distribution.
“My main duty is to co-ordinate between those making the food and the places where it is needed,” she said from behind an opulent desk normally occupied by the Chamber of Commerce’s chairman.
“Our motivation comes from wanting to support our people and that’s what we’re working for.”
At a distribution centre set up in a building belonging to a teachers’ association, volunteers form human chains to load aid on to lorries too large to enter the narrow street.
“We have up to 150 people working here, loading food, children’s needs, women’s needs, blankets, shoes, clothing, whatever we can,” Kurdish language teacher Fesih Zirek said. “The association has another building that we can’t use because it's not safe so we just use this two-storey building.”
Aziz Ozkan spoke to The National after driving from Ankara to Diyarbakir via Malatya, a city hit heavily by the quake, to drop off supplies. “The roads are very difficult and progress is slow,” he said.
“About 500,000 people are trying to leave Malatya. Normally it would take seven hours between Ankara and Malatya but it took us 13 hours. It’s not just traffic jams but also the snow.”
For the region’s hard-pressed volunteers, an end to their endeavours seems a distant possibility.
“We’re not sure when it’ll be finished,” Mr Celik said. “Besides what we’re doing now, we also have to help those whose buildings are damaged and can’t return home. It will take at least a year.”
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Four tips to secure IoT networks
Mohammed Abukhater, vice president at FireEye in the Middle East, said:
- Keep device software up-to-date. Most come with basic operating system, so users should ensure that they always have the latest version
- Besides a strong password, use two-step authentication. There should be a second log-in step like adding a code sent to your mobile number
- Usually smart devices come with many unnecessary features. Users should lock those features that are not required or used frequently
- Always create a different guest network for visitors
The%20specs
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PROFILE
Name: Enhance Fitness
Year started: 2018
Based: UAE
Employees: 200
Amount raised: $3m
Investors: Global Ventures and angel investors
England World Cup squad
Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wkt), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
The bio
Job: Coder, website designer and chief executive, Trinet solutions
School: Year 8 pupil at Elite English School in Abu Hail, Deira
Role Models: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
Dream City: San Francisco
Hometown: Dubai
City of birth: Thiruvilla, Kerala
Company%20Profile
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder MHEV
Power: 360bhp
Torque: 500Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh282,870
On sale: now