by Peter Zeihan on February 7, 2023

In the early hours of Monday, Feb. 6th, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 hit the city of Gaziantep in southern Turkey. The quake was felt across Turkey and deep into Syria, leaving behind a path of deadly destruction.

At the time of recording, the death toll in Turkey and Syria was in the 2,000s. At the time of scheduling this newsletter, the death toll in Turkey and Syria is well above 3,500 and will continue to rise throughout the coming days.

Natural disasters happen at random, but that doesn’t mean they can’t also be geopolitical events. The 2011 Togoku earthquake/tsunami that took the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear reactor offline had grave consequences for global nuclear energy policy. In Turkey’s case, expect Sweden and Russia to offer humanitarian aid and try to get back into Ankara’s good graces.