Cold, rain, snow and great destruction – the rescuers in Turkey and Syria are struggling with adverse conditions. You’re running out of time. People are desperate – and angry.
Even the rescuers’ building is just a pile of rubble. The headquarters of the civil protection agency Afad in Hatay in southern Turkey has collapsed and has become a symbol of the great destruction in the country. First aid bags are sticking out of the rubble, as seen in media images. After one of the most severe earthquakes in Turkey and Syria in recent decades, the extent of the disaster is becoming increasingly clear: buildings have collapsed, more than 6,000 people have died – 13.5 million people have been affected by the disaster in Turkey alone.
People are desperate on Tuesday, calls for more help are coming from remote regions, there is sometimes a lack of electricity and water, access roads are destroyed or covered in snow, it is bitterly cold. On social media, people desperately share the alleged locations of their loved ones. In Turkey, everyone seems to know someone buried under the rubble. More than 50,000 rescuers are in action – but they are running out of time.
But the anger is also growing among many: If not even the buildings of the helpers are safe, which ones are they? Questions are raised in Turkey as to how the great destruction could have happened – and whether the government was sufficiently prepared.
Geophysicist: Big quake overdue
For experts, the earthquake between the Anatolian and Arabian tectonic plates came as no surprise. A major earthquake was overdue at this so-called East Anatolian fault zone, says Marco Bohnhoff from the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam. “We shouted, we shouted and talked to the local authorities,” Turkish geoscientist Naci Görür tells local media. Nobody listened to the scientists. When he found out about the earthquake, he cried.
Nusret Suna from the Istanbul Chamber of Civil Engineers criticized the authorities for failing to make old houses earthquake-proof. Even buildings that were built after 1999 – i.e. after the devastating earthquake near Istanbul that killed more than 17,000 – are not safe. Architects, contractors and others in charge ignored “ethical principles and moral values” and often acted out of “greed for profit”.
The situation in the earthquake areas continues to be dramatic. In southern Turkey’s Iskenderun, people are upset. “Where is our President?” shouts a woman who fears for her relatives buried under the rubble to a Turkish television crew.
“Is that how you govern a country?”
In Göskun in the province of Kahramanmaras, a couple and their son wait in their tailor shop. They have not yet reached helpers, they tell the German Press Agency. Since the quake, they have only eaten salty biscuits and a flat white bread. Her house is completely destroyed, she can never enter it again, that’s clear.
“In this country, no one has any rights,” the catastrophe made clear once again, says the father. Nobody cares about the poor. “Do you govern a country like that?” scolds the father, meaning President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He therefore does not want to know his name in this text.
In Adiyaman, near the Syrian border, there is a lack of everything, says Kemal Bülbül, MP for the pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP. Residents heard voices under the rubble, but could not reach the victims. There is a lack of heavy equipment with which to lift the rubble. The supermarkets are closed and there has been looting, says the politician.
“The situation is really catastrophic,” says Ahmad al-Tawil, who traveled to the city of Harim near the Turkish border to find his cousin, who has been missing since the earthquake.
Scale of destruction shocked rescuers
According to the White Helmets, the rescuers in Syria, like in Turkey, are concerned not only with the temperatures below freezing but also with the extent of the destruction. You also lack equipment. The rescue organization, which is active in rebel-held areas of Syria, suspects hundreds are still trapped in the rubble.
The day of the earthquake was the hardest day of his life, says Ahmed Hanura. “I experienced all the days of war in the city of Aleppo,” said the 52-year-old. The city was badly damaged in fierce fighting and is considered a symbol of the civil war. On Monday, however, Hanura’s fear was even greater than it was then. Many of his neighbors perished in their collapsed houses.
“We hear voices under the rubble, but we can’t help the people,” says a civil defense worker whose team is deployed near Aleppo. “We are not used to such destruction.”
Experts also expect earthquakes in Turkey in the future – also near the metropolis of Istanbul. But the Potsdam experts did not assume that this earthquake would affect the Istanbul region due to the great distance. Civil engineer Suna has been warning for years that the buildings there also urgently need to be renovated. The current situation gives an idea of how catastrophic it could be if an earthquake of similar magnitude hits the region. “I don’t dare say it. But with a tremor like this, none of us will be able to move. None.”