Before starting my piece today, I want to send my heartfelt condolences to everyone who lost a loved one and their homes, I want to say may God give you patience. For those who lost their lives, may you rest in peace. I share my sympathies for everyone going through the pain and anger that we are feeling right now. But more so I apologise, I apologise on behalf of every single person who has been watching it from the distance, cause we can’t do more….
We are here, we won’t forget, we will do better…
The question is “Did this have to be this bad? Did we have to lose this many lives?
Is this just a horrible natural disaster or there is serious negligence?
6th of February my mom came to my room and said “Merve there has been an earthquake”this is so similar to what I heard the morning of 17th August ’99, the only difference is I knew there was an earthquake that time, I just didn’t know how bad it was… This time I knew this sentence meant a disaster. This sentence meant death and pain.
One sentence that will ring in our ears, which has been ringing since 99 is “Can anyone hear my voice?”
Then long silence in crowds, waiting to hear one small sound.
When you are so far away from your home, especially when you left your country broken towards it, the pain hurts so much. You are far away, and you can’t do anything, so you are on social media trying to get updates, you are on youTube news channels so you can get some independent information, you try to collect aids, donations, you try to do something anything just one little thing.
It is lonely, when the rest of the country you are living in doesn’t feel what you are feeling… There is sympathy but how can they understand what they are going through….
There is pain, it is fresh, there is lot to talk about, we need to find a way to wrap the wounds who is affected by this, we need to help them build new lives… Turkish people are amazing when it comes to helping each other, when are like phoenix raising from its ashes…
But then the question comes up, why do we always end-up as ashes… Why?
But before all that let’s understand what happened, what is happening?
Southeastern Turkey got hit with two big earthquakes one after another 7.8 at 4:15 am (local time), 7.7 at 1:30 pm local time affection 18.1 million people (ref: relief web.it)
Anadolu Agency reported:
“Severely affected an area of around 450 kilometers, from Adana in the west to Diyarbakır in the east and 300 kilometres from Malatya in the north to Hatay in the south in Türkiye, including the main cities of Gaziantep, Adana, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Malatya, Kilis, Osmaniye, Diyarbakir, Adiyaman and Sanliurfa in Türkiye, where about 13.5 million people are residing. In northwest Syria, Syrian authorities reported deaths as far south as Hama, about 100 kilometres from the epicentre, including the cities of Aleppo, Idlib, Homs and Hama, home to about 4.6 million people.”
These are facts, they are comparing the disaster to atomic bombs… So, we all know it is bad. But it wasn’t an atomic bomb it was an earthquake that was expected.
I had friends who said they couldn’t watch, I said don’t… Don’t watch it. I have a background in psychology, and I can see what kind of a trauma everyone is going through so if you don’t have to, if you can manage to please do not watch the scenes. However, be aware of the facts. Facts are important.
So going back to the facts this is one of the worst disasters of the century and we all agree on this. Two earthquakes one after another was not expected at the same time by anyone.
But did it really have to be this bad, with so many buildings turned into rubbles?
Facts:
It was a well-known fact that there was going to be an earthquake.
The government bodies had been worn about the possible magnitude of an earthquake.
Questions:
Why did they build on top of the fault line when there were clear maps of those?
Who gave the permits for these buildings?
Who designed these buildings?
Who approved any of this?
Who buried their heads in the sand when they knew what was going on?
Why did it take so long to get the help there?
Why did it take so long to organise anything in a country of earthquake zone, a country who is experienced in disaster?
I am not sure if these are the questions that need to be asked now, as the priority should be to survivors. We need to help them. We need to be there for them. Our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, our kids we are all responsible for them now.
But we should not forget our responsibility towards those who died, towards the kids who became orphaned, towards the mothers and fathers who cried over rubbles for their kids. The youth who disregarded their own pain and dig through the rubbles with their hands to find and help one more person.
The rubbles of buildings that were built cheaper out of greed, the approvals for those buildings out of greed, the amnesty given to the buildings that were known to be not properly build out of greed and maybe ignorance.
When you do not work in harmony with nature, you can’t blame it for the magnitude of a disaster.
When there is knowingly allowed human error, that is called murder not natural disaster.
So today make a promise that you will not allow this to happen again. If people are accountable for their actions than the wounds could heal faster knowing that the history will not repeat itself.
MERVE BAYINDIR
Hat & Millinery Designer
www.mervebayindir.com
Instagram: mervebayindiroffical
