The dawn of February 6, 2023 will be recorded as a typical tragedy that befell the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean, or to be precise, part of their peoples.

The fear and panic, despite their magnitude, can’t be compared to the horror and devastation of being buried under the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings.

It is an unprecedented catastrophe for many decades back, which befell the Turkish and the Syrians, uniting the regions that were divided by the war lines, in the affliction, blood, destruction and mourning.

The “great earthquake” that struck southern Turkey did not spare northern and northwestern Syria, but rather struck large areas on both sides of the border, causing thousands of deaths, and drawing a painful and blatant scene of human impotence and limited power when nature wants to have its way.

However, this limitation is not acknowledged by the “greatest and most powerful country” even in moments of collective despair; America always finds a way to practice its selectivity, authoritarianism and division of human beings into a category fit to live and survive and others who don’t even deserve the sympathy as they slip from under the rubble of their destroyed homes and are buried in the ground of their country, which has been saturated with blood, death, starvation and oppression that was caused primarily by external interference and greed.

Thus, the sanctioned but devastated Syria stands alone in healing its wounds, unable to do what any normal country could do in a similar situation, after the decade of war took its toll on its people and infrastructure, the siege exhausted its government and the unjustifiable inhumane sanctions crippled it.

On the other hand, aid rains on Turkey, as it should, from everywhere with emotional and material support. It is unjustifable; even if some countries have their stupid and biased explainable reasons, the fact remains that the two countries, Turkey and Syria, suffer similar calamities at the same moment from the cruelty and devastation of the same earthquake, yet they are separated by who is deserving and who is not deserving of rescue and help.

And if politics has its definite place here, the instinct and emotion remain the two important factors, dividing us between pain, sadness and panic, and the hope that tomorrow will not be worse, regardless of the horrible images and manifestations of this disaster.