Turkey survives with severe aftermath five months after earthquake

When a natural disaster happens, the whole world turns to those affected. Financial aid, means to solve it and international diffusion are allocated, but all this disappears after a few months. The case of the earthquake in Turkey was no exception.

 

On February 6, 2023, a devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.8 struck the south of the country at 4:17 a.m. followed by another, 9 hours later, with a magnitude of 7.5. This was not all, as more than 1,000 aftershocks have been recorded, destroying everything. More than 50,000 people died, others lost their homes or family members, and dozens of cities were destroyed.

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The lives of those who survived have been changed forever. One of this is Meltem Zateri, a young woman who lived in the city of Iskenderun, in Hatay province. When her house started shaking in the early morning, she was alone with her brother. The rest of her family was an hour and a quarter away, in the town of Defne. After the tremor, Meltem tried to contact her loved ones by phone to make sure everyone was okay, but the phone connections were not working, so she decided to go with her brother in search of her relatives. As many of the roads were destroyed, it took them a long time to get there, and when they did, they found the worst: the city was totally destroyed and their relatives were trapped under the rubble. «Help didn't arrive until the fourth day. They sent trucks and provided us with medical assistance. Even so, it wasn't until a week later that we were able to pull out our relatives who were under the rubble. It was very hard to know that they would no longer be with me», Meltem says.

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The landscape of Hatay province became a mountain of rubble. Few buildings remained standing, so many people moved to the north of the country. Meltem took advantage of the fact that her other brother was studying and living in Eskişehir - in the northwest of the country - to move there with him. She has been living away from the city that saw her grow up for 5 months now. Like her, thousands of Turks have had to leave everything behind to continue their lives, unable to forget everything they lost.

 

For all those who did not have the opportunity to move to another city in Turkey due to lack of financial resources, the Turkish Government provided them with accommodation in tents or containers. The tents are located in camps where a large community of neighbors were created. Each family received a tent with electricity and mattresses on the floor, and toilets and showers are common in each camp. However, the containers have other privileges. Four people live in each container, sleep in two bunk beds, have their own bathroom and kitchen, as well as a living room with television.

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But what is the Turkish government's criteria for allocating a tent or a container to a family? Syrian, Afghan or Pakistani refugees, and Turkish citizens who publicly position themselves against the government, are assigned a tent. On the other hand, Turkish citizens who have positioned themselves in favor of Erdoğan are assigned a container. Favorable treatment towards those who are supporters of Erdoğan's government is once again proven when, in this case, all those affected have gone through the same disaster situation.

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SOLIDARITY AS A FLAG

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Not everything surrounding the earthquake has been bad, as thousands of people from all over the world have shown their solidarity with Turkey. Associations from many countries have pitched their tent in Hatay to care for injured patients or to cook for those affected.

 

Anadolu Mutfaği (Anatolian Kitchen) is an organization established at Anadolu University of Eskişehir and has set up a kitchen in the city of Belen (Hatay). Anadolu Mutfaği volunteers bring food to the various camps in the area, where thousands of children wait with pots and plates to receive the volunteers who will serve them food. Once they finish eating, the children play with the volunteers for an hour until the association's van arrives at the camp to pick them up.

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Muhammet Tekgezer helped those affected by the earthquake in the weeks leading up to the start of his military service: «The first thing I'm going to do at the end of my military service is to go back to Hatay, definitely», Muhammet says. He has studied early childhood education and loves children, the perfect cocktail for volunteering with this organization. «The children have been very unlucky, you can see in their eyes the aftermath of the earthquake. They are even scared of some of the toys we give them, such as ambulances, tractors or trucks», points out Muhammet.

 

Apart from the children, his passion has always been music, so he always tries to use it to teach the children things: «We make these children play a lot with us so that they reconnect with life through music and thus make them happy and forget everything». «When I saw Antakya so destroyed after the earthquake I cried, I cried a lot.

It is estimated that the buildings will be rebuilt in 5 years, but rebuilding the mental health of the people who have suffered will take 20 years», he says.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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HEALTH

 

The current director of Hatay province's healthcare, Sıtkı Sönmez, was under the rubble for 41 hours together with his family in Antakya, Hatay. When he was found after 8 hours, he asked to save his children first, but unfortunately, his three children passed away. When Sıtkı Sönmez was rescued, he was not able to stay in Antakya to see the city destroyed like that, «It was something I could not bear. I couldn't stop thinking about my children, I had to leave Antakya», Sönmez explains. For a month, he kept a close eye on developments in his hometown, and his vocation for medicine brought him back. «For me, working is therapy. After I lost my children, I was able to disconnect from everything by working and forget my grief», Sönmez says.

 

A major problem encountered in the affected cities was that, like the buildings, the hospitals were also in ruins. In Antakya, they acted in record time to treat the hundreds of people injured by the earthquake. «The first thing my colleagues did was to remove as much medical equipment as possible that was inside the hospital. At the same time, state units brought in tents and set them up so that the patients could be cared for there», Sönmez says. «Within a couple of hours, they organized all the human resources and started treating the patients as quickly as possible», he adds.

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Every time the doctors woke up in the morning there were more and more tents ready to attend to the wounded, so that ten days after the earthquake they had full capacity to help patients as they would do in the hospital destroyed by the earthquake. Three weeks later, they began to build the containers in which they are still treating patients today. «The place where the new hospital will be built has already been decided. It will have 800 beds and construction will start soon», says the health director.

 

Meltem Zateri, Muhammet Tekgezer and Sıtkı Sönmez are three examples of strength, solidarity and resilience, a reflection of the rest of the Turkish people. Five months later, the country continues to work to move forward after one of the biggest catastrophes they have ever suffered, proving that they still have a long way to go.

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