On 17 March 2023, the Syrian Association for Citizens’ Dignity (SACD) and the European Institute for Peace (EIP) held a conference bringing together a large group of Syrian civil society organizations to assess the humanitarian and political situation of Syrians affected by the earthquake in southern Turkey and northwestern Syria. They drafted a letter outlining their demands before International Donors Conference on 20 March 2023. 

Those directly affected and those working on emergency issues feel that there is an urgent need to convey the short-term and long-term humanitarian needs of the Syrian people in northwest Syria to the international community, donors, and the United Nations with its agencies. This includes their views on the correct political and legal framework for the sustainability of this assistance and post-earthquake rehabilitation. They also feel that their voices must be included in discussions related to finding a political solution in Syria, especially the “step-by-step” approach. 

After the disaster, the humanitarian and political effects of the earthquake continue to reverberate in the region. Syrian refugees in Türkiye and the general population in northwest Syria are considered the most affected. The speed and nature of the UN response to the earthquake in northwest Syria caused concern among those affected, as did the marked acceleration in Arab countries’ normalization of relations with the Syrian regime in the wake of the earthquake.