Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria
Survivors wait in vain for help from the state – and dig for relatives themselves
A girl stands next to rubble and cries
© Khalil Hamra/AP/DPA
“Where is the state?” survivors ask themselves after the earthquake in Turkey. They feel left alone by the authorities – and have to take their lives and the search for relatives into their own hands.
It’s the last time that Mesut Hancer will hold his daughter Irmak’s hand. In his bright orange warning jacket, he crouches on the ruins of his house in Kahramanmaras in southern Turkey and strokes the dead man’s waxy fingers. Only the arm of the 15-year-old protrudes from the rubble, lying on a mattress, the rest of her body was buried under huge concrete slabs by the earthquake.
The father is in shock, he cannot speak. Despite the freezing cold, he refuses to let go of Irmak’s hand. The picture, taken by AFP photographer Adem Altan in the city of Kahramanmaras, went around the world. “This photo touches the world,” wrote “Bild Online”.
Irmak is one of many thousands of people who lost their lives in the violent earthquake on Monday morning in the Turkish-Syrian border area. The survivors in Kahramanmaras are also in despair. The mourning for the dead is mixed with anger at the slow pace of help.
Searching for loved ones with their bare hands
“Where is the state? Where is it?” Ali Sagiroglu exclaims bitterly. “Look around. There isn’t a single official here, dammit. It’s been two days since the quake and we haven’t seen anyone.” Sagiroglu still hopes to rescue his brother and nephew from their collapsed house. But for that he needs help.
The extent of the destruction is overwhelming. During the first quake before sunrise, eight residential buildings more than ten stories high collapsed in the city center, only a few people were able to get to safety.
Some families have given up waiting for rescue workers and clearing equipment. They dig for their loved ones in the rubble with their bare hands. In many places in the city, AFP reporters encounter people who are completely on their own after the disaster – without government help, without food or medical care.
And an eerie silence has fallen in the city center. “Yesterday we could hear many people in the ruins calling for help, but today it’s quiet,” says a man who declined to be named. “You must have frozen to death.”
Authorities have “no mercy, no compassion”
People huddle around campfires to warm themselves, while others seek shelter from the harsh wind and rain in cars. At night the temperature dropped to three degrees below zero. In the devastated streets, survivors hold out next to the corpses of their relatives. Nobody comes to salvage the dead.
Cuma Yildiz, a man in his 60s, feels abandoned by the authorities. “Where are you now, where?” He is outraged. “They have no mercy, no compassion. Don’t they fear God?”
In the province of Hatay, 150 kilometers further south, people are also desperately waiting for rescue teams. Onur Kayai paces up and down in front of the ruins of his house, begging for help. His mother and brother are trapped under the rubble. The 40-year-old tried several times to free the two with his bare hands.
“I moved three stones over my brother’s head, but it’s too hard,” he says. “My mother’s voice is still clear, but I can’t hear my brother anymore.” Kayai looks in vain for the vehicles of the Afat rescue service. “Some say that the Afat building also collapsed,” he says.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised on Tuesday that many soldiers will soon support rescue workers in the earthquake area. For the girl Irmak and thousands of others, this help comes too late.