More than 50,000 people lost their lives as a result of the two earthquakes that struck southern Turkey on February 6. While the state failed in both disaster preparedness and its response to the devastation, Turkish civil society has stepped in, providing large-scale humanitarian aid and banding together to defend the human rights of survivors in the ongoing aftermath of the catastrophe. This robust civic response is all the more impressive given the authoritarian government's escalating restrictions on independent activism in recent years.

https://freedomhouse.org/article/turkeys-earthquake-aftermath-underscores-value-civil-society

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