On Monday, local time, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey and Syria, killing at least 5000 people.
Following the deadly earthquake, Elon Musk stated he will send aid over the Starlink network “as soon as approved,” in a tweet.
However, the Turkish government has not yet approved the Starlink services that enabled Ukraine to keep interconnected with the rest of the world during the Russia-Ukraine war.
Musk’s statement was in response to a Twitter user who stated that “severe communication difficulties are occurring” due to the massive earthquake that struck Turkey near the Syrian border.
According to Bloomberg, a senior Turkish official who did not want to be identified thanked the multibillionaire for the proposal but stated that Turkey already had enough satellite capacity. According to the source, the country has base stations running on batteries, even though energy is unavailable in some areas.
Several countries and organizations have offered assistance by dispatching search and rescue teams.
India, the EU, and NATO have all pledged assistance and dispatched rescue teams to assist Turkey in dealing with the earthquake’s aftermath. However, both countries’ medical infrastructures are likewise under severe strain as the death toll rises.