Kahramanmaras (Turkey) (AFP) – Cansu Gol lost her baby in the rubble of Turkey's massive earthquake a year ago. Now she spends her time trying to heal the mental scars of her two surviving children.
Issued on: 03/02/2024 -
Container schools offer children a sense of normality in Turkey's earthquake zone © YASIN AKGUL / AFPADVERTISING
One suffers from trauma-related attention deficit disorder and the other from speech problems which emerged after last year's February 6 disaster in which 50,000 died across Turkey's southeast.
For the 33-year-old mother, the improvised schools in a container city near the quake's epicentre in the province of Kahramanmaras offer a glimmer of hope.
"My seven-year-old daughter was pulled out alive from the rubble hours after the earthquake. Now she is suffering from attention deficit disorder," Gol told AFP.
"She didn't cry or scream at all, instead storing all the stress inside," she said.
Her four-and-a-half-year-old son began to speak after joining a nursery set up in one of the containers housing hundreds of thousands of survivors of Turkey's deadliest disaster of modern times.
"He keeps asking about his brother (who died). He says he flew away like a bird," the mother said.
Bouts of violence
Teachers try to create an atmosphere of normality for the kids, each one of whom has lost homes, family and friends. All have varied levels of understanding what actually occurred.
A bust of post-Ottoman Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, stands in the courtyard, just as it would at any other school.
The 20-student classrooms are decorated with balloons, adding colour to a camp comprised of hundreds of identical white metal containers arranged in even rows.
'Things won't go well until these families are settled in apartments,' the school principal said © YASIN AKGUL / AFP
Just a 10-minute walk away, empty spaces recall the apartment towers that stood in this Mediterranean city, once most famous for its ice cream.
"It is just as painful for the students as it is for the teachers," said the school's principal, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity because civil servants are barred from speaking to the media without authorisation.
"Many things evoke the quake: aftershocks, the month of February or simply the snowfall," which was heavy that fatal night, he said.
His school takes care of 850 children from diverse backgrounds.
They live in a container city housing 10,000 survivors, creating a tense atmosphere that breeds occasional bouts of violence.
"Cursing, offensive gestures, kicking -- things won't go well until these families are settled in apartments," he said.
Just a 10-minute walk away, empty spaces recall the apartment towers that stood in this Mediterranean city, once most famous for its ice cream.
"It is just as painful for the students as it is for the teachers," said the school's principal, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity because civil servants are barred from speaking to the media without authorisation.
"Many things evoke the quake: aftershocks, the month of February or simply the snowfall," which was heavy that fatal night, he said.
His school takes care of 850 children from diverse backgrounds.
They live in a container city housing 10,000 survivors, creating a tense atmosphere that breeds occasional bouts of violence.
"Cursing, offensive gestures, kicking -- things won't go well until these families are settled in apartments," he said.
'Ghost city'
The principal said the state was doing its best, even housing teachers in the container cities so they can be near the kids.
"In which disaster is everything perfect?" he asked. "Life goes on."
But that life, said Sara Resitoglu, 24, is a constant struggle.
'Kahramanmaras has turned into a ghost city,' Fatih Yilanci said
© YASIN AKGUL / AFP
"There's no space. All our lives are in one room," the young mother sighed.
Elif Yavuz and her husband tried to rebuild their lives in the nearby city of Mersin, following the path taken by more than three million people who left immediately after the quake.
But like many others, the couple eventually moved back because their seven-year-old, who has heart problems, struggled to adapt.
"I resigned myself to returning and living in a container just so that she would not be upset," the mother said.
Her daughter was now doing well in school. Yavuz plans to buy her a new pair of shoes as a reward for another excellent report card.
Away from the container camp, Fatih Yilanci joined the multitudes who spend days scouring city ruins for scrap metal they can sell to feed their families.
His apartment was only lightly damaged, meaning that his family did not automatically qualify for a container home.
But his neighbourhood is gone, as are most of his friends, who died in the ruins.
"Kahramanmaras has turned into a ghost city," Yilanci said.
© 2024 AFP
Turkey commemorates its worst disaster of modern times
Istanbul (AFP) – Turkey on Tuesday holds pre-dawn vigils for the loss of more than 50,000 people -- and parts of entire cities -- in the earthquake-prone country's deadliest disaster of modern times.
Issued on: 03/02/2024 -
"There's no space. All our lives are in one room," the young mother sighed.
Elif Yavuz and her husband tried to rebuild their lives in the nearby city of Mersin, following the path taken by more than three million people who left immediately after the quake.
But like many others, the couple eventually moved back because their seven-year-old, who has heart problems, struggled to adapt.
"I resigned myself to returning and living in a container just so that she would not be upset," the mother said.
Her daughter was now doing well in school. Yavuz plans to buy her a new pair of shoes as a reward for another excellent report card.
Away from the container camp, Fatih Yilanci joined the multitudes who spend days scouring city ruins for scrap metal they can sell to feed their families.
His apartment was only lightly damaged, meaning that his family did not automatically qualify for a container home.
But his neighbourhood is gone, as are most of his friends, who died in the ruins.
"Kahramanmaras has turned into a ghost city," Yilanci said.
© 2024 AFP
Turkey commemorates its worst disaster of modern times
Istanbul (AFP) – Turkey on Tuesday holds pre-dawn vigils for the loss of more than 50,000 people -- and parts of entire cities -- in the earthquake-prone country's deadliest disaster of modern times.
Issued on: 03/02/2024 -
Last year's February 6 disaster killed nearly 60,000 people and erased swathes of cities across Turkey and parts of Syria
© OZAN KOSE / AFP
Grieving Turks are still coming to terms with how a 7.8-magnitude tremor could upturn the lives of millions of people in a matter of seconds while they were still asleep.
An updated toll released Friday showed that 53,537 people had died across 11 southeaster provinces officially designated as the disaster zone.
The confirmed loss of 5,951 more lives in neighbouring Syria makes last year's February 6 earthquake one of the 10 deadliest in the world in the past 100 years.
Ancient cities such as Antakya have been effectively wiped off the map
Others have gaping holes in place of apartment towers that toppled like houses of cards when the ground began to move at 4:17 am.
Shellshocked survivors stood outside in the freezing cold in their pyjamas and listened to those trapped under concrete slabs of debris scream in agonising pain.
"It's been a year, but it doesn't leave our minds," housewife Cagla Demirel told AFP in one of the container camps set up for hundreds of thousands of survivors in Antakya.
"Life has lost its spark," the 31-year-old said. "I have no family left to visit, no door to knock on, no pleasant place to be. Nothing remains."
'Can you hear us?'
Antakya's remaining residents plan to gather on Tuesday at 4:17 am for a vigil that will see everyone cry out: "Can you hear us?"
The call became ubiquitous across the disaster zone as people searched for loved ones in the rubble.
Grieving Turks are still coming to terms with how a 7.8-magnitude tremor could upturn the lives of millions of people in a matter of seconds while they were still asleep.
An updated toll released Friday showed that 53,537 people had died across 11 southeaster provinces officially designated as the disaster zone.
The confirmed loss of 5,951 more lives in neighbouring Syria makes last year's February 6 earthquake one of the 10 deadliest in the world in the past 100 years.
Ancient cities such as Antakya have been effectively wiped off the map
Others have gaping holes in place of apartment towers that toppled like houses of cards when the ground began to move at 4:17 am.
Shellshocked survivors stood outside in the freezing cold in their pyjamas and listened to those trapped under concrete slabs of debris scream in agonising pain.
"It's been a year, but it doesn't leave our minds," housewife Cagla Demirel told AFP in one of the container camps set up for hundreds of thousands of survivors in Antakya.
"Life has lost its spark," the 31-year-old said. "I have no family left to visit, no door to knock on, no pleasant place to be. Nothing remains."
'Can you hear us?'
Antakya's remaining residents plan to gather on Tuesday at 4:17 am for a vigil that will see everyone cry out: "Can you hear us?"
The call became ubiquitous across the disaster zone as people searched for loved ones in the rubble.
Hundreds of thousands of survivors have spent the past year living in tents and metal containers
© BULENT KILIC / AFP
But it also appears to be a nuanced reminder for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government that many in the quake zone feel left behind.
Analysts at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) point out that the disaster struck an area already weighted down by unemployment and underinvestment.
"Some districts in the region have the highest poverty rate in Turkey," TEPAV said in a report.
Erdogan pushed back hard against complaints that government rescuers were unprepared and slow to respond.
He has branded the quake "the catastrophe of the century" that no nation could have averted or quickly overcome.
He crisscrossed the nation in the first weeks of the disaster and promised to deliver 650,000 new housing units within a year.
But it also appears to be a nuanced reminder for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government that many in the quake zone feel left behind.
Analysts at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) point out that the disaster struck an area already weighted down by unemployment and underinvestment.
"Some districts in the region have the highest poverty rate in Turkey," TEPAV said in a report.
Erdogan pushed back hard against complaints that government rescuers were unprepared and slow to respond.
He has branded the quake "the catastrophe of the century" that no nation could have averted or quickly overcome.
He crisscrossed the nation in the first weeks of the disaster and promised to deliver 650,000 new housing units within a year.
'No return to normal'
He began to hand out keys in Antakya on Saturday for the first 7,000 apartments of the 46,000 ready to be delivered across the quake zone this month.
He said up to 20,000 units would be delivered monthly and 200,000 by the end of the year -- short of his initial promise but still impressive for a region hit by post-quake chaos.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the quake 'the catastrophe of the century'
© Adem ALTAN / AFP
"Of course, we cannot bring back the lives we lost, but we can compensate all the other losses," Erdogan told Antakya residents on Saturday.
"We made promises to do so."
But Erdogan's words offer little solace to people such as ice cream vendor Kadir Yeniceli.
The 70-year-old native of Kahramanmaras -- a hard-hit city where Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party enjoys overwhelming support -- said people feel "confused" about what happens next.
"There has been no return to normal," Yeniceli told AFP. "It remains the same, there is no progress. There is a lack of employment, there is a lack of money, there is a lack of income."
'Much to be done'
Erdogan's housing pledges came in the runup to a May 2023 general election that turned into the toughest of his two-decade rule.
He prevailed in a runoff presidential ballot thanks to consistent support across much of the disaster zone.
"Of course, we cannot bring back the lives we lost, but we can compensate all the other losses," Erdogan told Antakya residents on Saturday.
"We made promises to do so."
But Erdogan's words offer little solace to people such as ice cream vendor Kadir Yeniceli.
The 70-year-old native of Kahramanmaras -- a hard-hit city where Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party enjoys overwhelming support -- said people feel "confused" about what happens next.
"There has been no return to normal," Yeniceli told AFP. "It remains the same, there is no progress. There is a lack of employment, there is a lack of money, there is a lack of income."
'Much to be done'
Erdogan's housing pledges came in the runup to a May 2023 general election that turned into the toughest of his two-decade rule.
He prevailed in a runoff presidential ballot thanks to consistent support across much of the disaster zone.
Analyst fear that Turkey is no better prepared for another big shake than it was one year ago
© Yasin AKGUL / AFP
Many voters expressed a lack of trust in the opposition and thought Erdogan's government was doing the best anyone could do under the circumstances.
But many voters and analysts point out that Turkey is no better prepared for another big shake than it was one year ago.
The country straddles two of the world's most active fault lines and is rattled almost daily by more minor quakes.
And hundreds of contractors are currently facing prosecution for allegedly skirting the building safety standards already in place.
"The country urgently needs to transition from crisis management to risk management," said Istanbul Technical University disaster management professor Mikdat Kadioglu.
"There is still much to be done."
© 2024 AFP
Many voters expressed a lack of trust in the opposition and thought Erdogan's government was doing the best anyone could do under the circumstances.
But many voters and analysts point out that Turkey is no better prepared for another big shake than it was one year ago.
The country straddles two of the world's most active fault lines and is rattled almost daily by more minor quakes.
And hundreds of contractors are currently facing prosecution for allegedly skirting the building safety standards already in place.
"The country urgently needs to transition from crisis management to risk management," said Istanbul Technical University disaster management professor Mikdat Kadioglu.
"There is still much to be done."
© 2024 AFP
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