According to Bloomberg, Turkey has turned down Elon Musk's offer to activate Starlink, SpaceX's satellite internet service, in the nation following a catastrophic earthquake.
Musk tweeted late Sunday, "Starlink is not yet approved by the Turkish government." As soon as it is authorized, SpaceX can send it.
Musk was reacting to a tweet from a user who claimed that Turkey was experiencing "serious communication outages" as a result of a 7.8 earthquake that struck the country's southeast near the Syrian border and left hundreds of people dead.
- An anonymous senior Turkish official told Bloomberg that while Turkey was grateful for Musk's gift, it already had adequate satellite capacity and its base stations were powered by batteries.
- Requests for a response from Insider were not immediately answered by SpaceX or the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- Following the earthquake, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Monday had killed more than 900 people and injured more than 5,300, Twitter users shared videos and postings about power shortages in Turkey.
- On Monday, Mer Fatih Sayan, Turkey's minister of transportation and infrastructure, tweeted that it was crucial that the earthquake-affected regions' communication infrastructure not be interfered with. He stated that discussions were routinely held to determine how to prevent communication breakdowns.
- Musk has previously offered assistance to nations facing a catastrophe.
- After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the millionaire turned on Starlink at the vice-prime minister's request. Mykhailo Fedorov. Thousands of Starlink internet dishes have been delivered by SpaceX to Ukraine and its military.
- In September, Musk stated that SpaceX intended to activate Starlink in Iran due to internet problems experienced during demonstrations against the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who passed away while in police detention.