Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria

 I am writing these lines with a heavy heart.

As many of you know, two separate and severe earthquakes (7.8 and 7.5 on the Richter scale) hit Southeastern Turkey in the first hours and later at noon on Monday. 

This district is where the East Anatolian Fault line travels south and enters Syria to end in the Mediterranean. 

There are 10 Turkish cities heavily affected by earthquakes. Some might be familiar to you: Kahramanmaraş, Malatya, Adıyaman, Şanlıurfa, Gaziantep, Hatay (Antioch), Diyarbakır, Osmaniye, Kilis and Adana. The combined population of these cities is more than 13.5 million. As I write these, the death toll is a devastating 12000 (Turkey and Syria combined). It is estimated that several hundred thousand are under the rubble, waiting to be rescued. That is if they haven't lost their lives due to the impact, dust asphyxiation, cold, or dehydration already.

What is thought but not uttered much right now is that the number of lives lost will probably increase, even multiply in the following days to reach six digits, since the hopes for rescue and rates of survival decrease dramatically after 72 hours. 

A damaged building in Kahramanmaraş. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

This might sound weird, but what makes me and everyone in Turkey simultaneously upset, angry and sad is not the deaths themselves. Of course, every natural disaster might and will cause damage, and some of it will be to lives. However, they could be minimised if not entirely prevented with preemptive measures, rapid and coordinated intervention. As you might also remember, Turkey had another severe earthquake (mag. 7.6) 24 years ago, in 1999, along the North Anatolian Fault. The epicentre of the earthquake was İzmit, a town 1,5h close to İstanbul. Eighteen thousand people died, and another 43 thousand were injured (these are the official numbers, where the experts set the death toll around 65 thousand). Back then, the UK sent Search and Rescue Teams to Yalova and Düzce, and tens of other countries helped from Americas to Far East. 

After the 1999 earthquake Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) was established, a new communication tax (known as the earthquake tax) was introduced, and an earthquake construction code was written with the hope that labour and resources could be collected and facilitated -not if- when another disaster happens. On Monday, we saw how much of a false hope that was. Not only did buildings three to five years old completely collapse, not only was the money collected through tax spent on highways and airports that lay now in ruins, but also AFAD was utterly unprepared, seeing entire districts laying in ruins, devoid of any search and rescue teams many hours after the disaster. In the days leading to the earthquakes, there were many warnings by geologists specialising in tectonics and seismology, reporting about seismic activities in this region, saying that they were "worried". Despite all these, the response time of AFAD was worse than the worst driver responding to the green light. 

Also, I am afraid that two critical decisions -indecisions- caused the loss of additional lives, which would otherwise be preventable. The first one is the declaration of a "state of emergency", which would have allowed the state to seize any construction equipment, truck, vehicle, or equipment to be used in the search and rescue efforts. SoE was declared, but in the 33rd hour, where all these hundreds of thousands under rubbles spent the night under the rubbles with temperatures as low as -11. 

Second, the army (a sizeable 720000 personnel), with knowledge and experience in and tools and machinery for first aid, search and rescue, and logistics was not mobilised until the end of the second day. This caused unnecessary loss of life, looting, kidnapping, and other petty and heavy crimes.  The reason for this reluctance might be the failed coup d'etat attempt in 2016, it might not be. The army could still have mobilised itself using another emergency protocol called Safety, Public Order and Aid, only if it wasn't revoked by the government in 2010. As if this was not enough, access to social media channels such as Twitter and Tiktok, which serve as platforms for coordination for search and rescue, communication and distribution of needs and logistics, was limited today, causing considerable hindrances to people's efforts for solidarity. 

One of the few things that might make us smile proudly is witnessing the extraordinary solidarity, almost supernatural calmness, and composure of Turkish people in the face of such a disaster. The moment the scale of the event was understood, NGOs, private companies, municipalities and individuals (truck drivers, cooks, crane operators, and pedagogies, among others) were ready for help. They made their way to the affected cities immediately. People offer housing, transportation, law services (yes, because many were arrested because of their social media posts) who are affected by the disaster. One fashion academy even wrote that they have many sewing machines at hand and would like to sew polar jumpers for people.

Many NGOs -some established after the 1999 earthquake- consist of hundreds if not thousands of health and safety, search and rescue professionals, philanthropists, experts and other volunteers. 

Three of them are worth mentioning:

1. AKUT Search and Rescue Association is a disaster search and rescue relief NGO. It was established in 1995 as a grassroots organization by seven leading outdoor athletes in Turkey and was officially founded as an association in 1996. The organization delivers emergency and disaster relief to people trapped in caves, lost in the mountains or victims of earthquake or flood disasters at home and abroad. 
2. Ahbap (eng. pal/buddy) is another NGO for help and relief in the broader sense of the concepts, such as education, gender conflict and environment. It was established by a former pop star whose songs I never liked, but I must confess that he is working miracles with Ahbap. 
   
3. İhtiyaç Haritası (eng. map of needs) is another NGO that works explicitly to connect the help with the need. They visualise the needs on a map and search for help. When it is found, it is delivered. It sounds very trivial, but it tackles one of the biggest problems with philanthropy, not knowing where and who needs what and getting that specific help to the people. It was initiated by a theatre actor in 2015 -delivering not solely to aesthetic needs? :)- and has grown ever bigger since then. 

Why did I write all of this? Honestly, I don't know, but I think I would not want to ask for help without providing information about the situation. An added benefit is to undress myself from the feelings of despair and helplessness and do something useful for a change. 

To sum up, the situation is dire. People -and animals- need basically anything and everything, concrete breaker machines, electrical metal saws, blankets, sanitary pads, shoes, stoves, safe spaces, food and even drinking water (yes, drinking water). The weight of consequences of other peoples' and institutions' ignorance, improvidence, corruption and neglect should never fall onto our shoulders, I know, but the emergency is so acute and fatal that I cannot and won't shrug it off easily. 

If you would like to help, you can go to one of the web pages of the NGOs I listed above and donate any amount (1GBP=23TL). I can assure you that they are safe and secure (and they can meet people's needs). Of course, many other international organisations are working in the area for disaster relief, like the British Red Cross (with an appeal to Turkey-Syria earthquake), to which I donated today. 

Even if you don't, you have read this far, so you know much more about Turkey than 10 minutes ago.