Turkey does not want Starlinks from Musk. The government was to reject the billionaire’s proposal

Earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8which took place on Monday in Turkey and Syria, not only claimed thousands of lives, but it also caused gigantic losses in critical infrastructure. As a result, many towns have been cut off from access to running water, electricity and access to the Internet.

In a partial solution to the latter problem Elon Musk decided to help the Turkish authorities, one of the richest people in the world and the creator of the Starlink service – a telecommunications satellite system that consists of thousands of satellites placed in low Earth orbit.

On Monday, in response to a request from a Twitter user to provide Turkey and neighboring countries with Internet from Starlink satellites, Musk emphasized that that this service has still not been approved by the Turkish government, but when that happens, SpaceX will send the necessary receivers.

However, it appears that Ankara is not interested in the billionaire’s proposal. The agency reached out to a high-ranking Turkish official who wanted to remain anonymous, who said that his country is grateful to Musk for his willingness to help, but Turkey has its own satellite network that operates on battery power.

Also on Monday Omer Faith Sayan, Turkey’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, tweeted that it is important that the communications infrastructure continues to operate in the earthquake-affected areas.

Elon Musk has made Starlinks available to Ukraine. And then he billed

This is not the first time Elon Musk has offered Internet access from Starlinks to countries in crisis. In February 2022, after Russia’s barbaric attack on Ukraine, SpaceX made its satellite network available to the inhabitants of our eastern neighbor. He did it at the request of Mykhailo Fedorov, the Ukrainian Minister of Digitization.

In October, however, Elon Musk stated that his company was unable to continue paying for Starlinks for Ukraine. The billionaire informed the US government that if he wants his satellite internet to continue working in Ukraine, the Pentagon will have to finance the project.

We are unable to further transfer terminals to Ukraine or finance existing terminals for an indefinite period

Then the billionaire changed his mind and posted on social media that SpaceX will continue to finance the operation of the Starlink satellite communication system in Ukraine.

To hell with it! Even though Starlink continues to lose millions and other companies get billions of taxpayer money, we will continue to fund the government of Ukraine for free

– wrote Elon Musk.

National mourning in Turkey. One of the worst such cataclysms in history

Around 6,000 buildings have collapsed in Turkey as a result of the quake, and entire districts are in ruins in the cities of Gaziantep and Hatay. The runway at Hatay Airport was torn in half, as was one of the highways in southern Turkey. Schools were closed for a week in 10 Turkish provinces.

So far, 250 million Turkish lire, or $13.3 million, has been sent to provinces in the affected area in bailout funds. Turkish President Recep Erdogan declared seven days of national mourning. Flags will be lowered to half mast, also in foreign representations.

Hundreds of buildings collapsed in Syria, thousands were damaged. Rescuers need heavy equipment to find missing people. Schools will remain closed across Syria until the end of the week.

It is one of the worst such cataclysms in the history of both countries, and the number of dead may increase. Rescuers in both Turkey and Syria are racing against time to pull as many survivors out of the rubble as possible.

The first earthquake occurred around 4:30 am local time. The second quake was recorded around 13:00 local time. Earth shakes all the time: Hundreds of aftershocks have been recorded so far. In total, the area affected by the cataclysm extends over 330 kilometers.

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