As Turkey struggles to heal quake wounds, questions persist about authorities slow response
GAZIANTEP –-Turkey is struggling to heal from the wounds inflicted on its population by the twin earthquakes that inflicted over 44,000 deaths in its southern and southeastern regions. In the aftermath of the catastrophic Feb. 6 tremors measured at 7.8 on the Richter scale with their epicentre at Gaziantep near the border with Syria, city governments including Istanbul, Ankara and Bursa, governor’s offices and other organizations sent trucks of water, food and bread as well as debris removal equipment and other necessary vehicles to the quake zones. Rescue workers set up a temporary tent city in Osmaniye province for those suffering from the earthquake providing uninterrupted 24-hour service with the coordination of the country's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
Foreign aid also has converged on the area. In Kahramanmaraşprovince, Oktay Mehtiyev, head of an Azerbaijani volunteer doctors team, set up a field hospital in Kahramanmaraşprovince. "My team consists of15 people. We're providing health services for more than100 people on a daily basis," Dr Mehtiyev said. There is no deadline for the work of their team to end -- it depends on the requirements of the Turkish government and the Kahramanmaras district local authorities.
Rescue operations were carried out with search dogs and thermal cameras, with families waiting with hope. As late as day seven of rescue efforts, hardworking teams witnessed more apparently miraculous rescues on as a few people were plucked from the debris of collapsed apartment blocks, many of them built flimsily by property speculators with the blessing of central government.
In central Hatay, an 11-year-old girl identified as Cudi and her 13-year-old sister Rend were recovered alive from a destroyed building after 147 hours. Cudi and her sister were the sole family survivors. Their father, mother and twin sisters all were found dead.
An experienced teacher and a former serviceman, , Cihan Tezuçar is one of this many volunteers working in the province of Kahramanmaraş.
“It’s very difficult to cope with what happened here. As an AFAD volunteer, you need to show multi-tasking skills including organization, attention to detail and giving psychological support for earthquake victims by reducing their stress in the face of such a tragedy,”32-year-old Tezuçar told me, his uniform and face covered in dust.
He acknowledged that rescue personnel were slow to take part in the initial effort when people needed urgent help in the search for survivors. Firefighters struggled to handle the initial response and necessary vehicles were not provided when they were urgently needed.
"The local civilians and the villagers came here with some tractors, cranes, bulldozers and excavators which really helped us a lot to accomplish our mission properly," Tezuçar told.
"Unfortunately, there was disorganization among rescuers on the first days of the quake. We were struggling against time and freezing cold. They were slow to arrive here. On the second day, it was firefighters who helped a lot during our rescue operations. But, it was insufficient in the face of the disaster. Also, we had inadequate N95 respirator masks and machinery in the search and rescue efforts", he said.
Tezuçar said his team later was supported by a Tajikistan rescue team in rescuing a 3-year-old child named Yavuz Cambaz who had spent 159 hours under rubble.
"We were working with the Tajikistanteam in the site. After long hours, we believed that no one was alive there and we were about to leave the region," said Tezuçar, "but later I suddenly detected a sign of life and asked my team to come near me quickly."
"When we found Yavuz alive, he was smiling innocently. He was in my arms andhewas conscious, but appeared in a state of shock. The boy kept smiling when I was carrying him to the ambulance," Tezuçar told theItalian Insider.
Residents such as Ali Rıza Akkurt concurred that rescue workers and necessary equipment were too slow to arrive and many more people could have survived if the rescuers arrived sooner in Kahramanmaraş province. Mr Akkurt lost his family inthe wreckage of the Hamdi bey Apartment in the Hayrullah District of Kahramanmaraş.
A visit to their relatives ended in death for the Akkurt family who were visiting when the quake struck the region. His daughter Filiz Çiftçi, 38, who was rescued from that wreckage of the demolished 6-storey apartment building with injuries after 108 hours, is only other survivor in Akkurt's family.
He attempted to save his family by digging through the rubble himself. "We tried to save them with neighbours. Voices were coming from there, so we rushed to help with local people. Fatih Çiftçi, my son-in-law, was shouting from under the rubble, 'I am here, I am here'.
"By the time the rescue team arrived, there was no answer, nothing. And his corpse was pulled out of the wreckage. And now I've had to bury five of my family. My son, his wife, their daughters and my son-in-law," he said.
"They were able to rescue my daughter Filiz. She was left trapped under rubble for 108 hours. She is still alive," he said. During the rescue of Filiz, emotional dialogues took place. One rescuer told the woman "We are here! We are here! We came. Hold on a little longer." “I hope I can do it.”she replied.
A new 6.4 magnitude quake shook Hatay province, killing six people, on Feb. 20.
With so many buildings having collapsed, many have been raising questions concerning the nature of the building safety regulations. Italian Insider spoke to local people in the southern province of Gaziantep who were still hoping to retrieve their lost relatives. According to residents in the area, high death toll from the quake results from low earthquake resistance among buildings.
Their destroyed buildings lack basic earthquake-resistant structures, like reinforced concrete or column bracing. "Contracting companies should not have built those buildings on swampy ground. There were three such buildings in this neighbourhood, all of which were destroyed." Mustafa Karakoyun, 64, a native of Gaziantep's Sarıgüllük district, has lost many friends in the disaster. "Thousands of structures are still unsafe, we are staying at the hospital now. There were hundreds of people with nothing. They were sitting in parks, in empty mosques ... wherever." he said.
“Building earthquake-resistant structures is not difficult. Municipalities, constructors and supervisors should now see that their negligence caused this disaster. Corrupt building practices and faulty urban planning is a combination of factors that led to this widespread destruction."
"When I was a driver for a building contractor years ago, I witnessed many luxurious properties that were built illegally. There was an illegally constructed 3-storey building here. In fact, the building permit was only for single-storey. But, they did not comply with the building regulations. Later, it was demolished in this quake. Such a structure should not be permitted to come up again."
"There are still six illegal constructions in this region. When I attempt to complain, I face threats and negative responses. What can I do as a resident?" he told.
An earthquake survivorin Osmaniye province, Yavuz Ulaşsaid "What we see today in Osmaniye is the result of the poor structural integrity of these buildings. Innocent people have died here because these buildings were not designed to be seismic resistant. But, the biggest problem is to re-plan the cities based on scientific data so as not to build on faultlines.”
"The buildings here just crumpled together in a mass of debris. The internal floors and structures aren't connected strongly enough to the outer wall. The death rate would have been reduced if buildings were designed to withstand earthquakes."
Many people who have been left homeless by the earthquake are living in the tent cities. Many others still continue to flee for safer places. The Sontur family moved into a tent just two days after the quake in the province of Osmaniye. "Here, there is no hygiene and it's really crowded. How can we go and beg for clean latrines? “We are traumatised, we feel helpless,”said Songül Sontur, "We lost everything. No insurance, no nothing and the officials are not helping. We have to do it ourself again."
"Some children in this tent city have been hospitalized for rabies. We are afraid if this virus can be spread here. We are at the point where words fail," another woman named Hayriye said.
İsmigül Durmaz, 70, spent the days living in the tent city in Osmaniye province after her building collapsed during the first quake.
She's desperate to get out of this site, where she's been sleeping in a large, crowded communal tent with seven people from her family. "I have heart disease, and I could get an infection very easily, my immune system is very low," she said.
Mrs Durmaz said other relatives, including her 28-year-old daughter-in-law, have claimed the only tent allocated to the family, and she's not even sure who she should ask for a tent of her own.
In another corner of the tent city in Osmaniye, Çilem Durmaz watches over two of her children. Çilem grows emotional as she remembers carrying her children out of their demolished house. "Barefoot, without any socks, I took these two kids, and that's how we barely made it out, stepping on broken pieces of rubble," she said, her eyes welling with tears.
“After a fire broke out inside a tent in this site a few days ago, we had to leave our tent for a while. I lost my money and some belongings there," she told.
Asked what they need most urgently right now, Songül says instantly, "clean underwear for children."
Some other survivors are still in need of help in the village of Akcatepe, in the Adiyaman province. Many villagers gather around small fires while waiting for the aid in Akcatepe.
The villagers said that they had tents, but they complained that those tents were not strong enough to protect them from the cold weather. Villagers fear icy conditions in the mountains will lead to more deaths.
Over 13 million people were affected by the quakes in Turkey across 10 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa where a state of emergency has been declared for three months.
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