Journalist Hayri Tunç shared on Wednesday his observations from Turkey’s disaster area torn by the devastating earthquakes on 6 February. “In these days when everyone is talking about “taking notes,” I, too, wanted to write my own earthquake notes,” said Tunç, referring to a statement made by a senior member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
“Since we are in the disaster region with our citizens, we have not been a part of political discussions. We are at the moment just noting things said against our president and against us,” said Ömer Çelik, the spokesperson of AKP, on 15 February.
Tunç’s “notes”:
In these days when everyone is talking about “taking notes,” I, too, wanted to write my own earthquake notes. It was very difficult for me to put it together, but it is necessary to write, to take notes. Because the pain and anger of the earthquake should never be forgotten. Maybe someone will read them, maybe they will feel the pain. Here you go…
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While I was taking photos, a family of earthquake victims shouted at me and swore at me, thinking I was photographing them. I apologised and told them I was not photographing them. When I saw them a day later, I went up to them, they recognised me and tried to apologize. I offered them a cigarette, their family was no longer there.
•In Uğur Mumcu Square in Hatay, I witnessed a mother breastfeeding her baby over the fire. With a thin blanket on her back, she was not thinking about herself, but about her child at a rickety fire.
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This dog, for example, was under the rubble on the first day of the earthquake but didn’t want to come out, and on the evening of the second day he came out, found the mother of the woman who was with him and took her to the rubble. I witnessed him crying with the mother, I witnessed him trying to wipe her tears.
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For example, when this woman said, “We have stuff, we want to go to Izmir but the vehicles won’t take it,” I asked her what was her stuff. She showed me 2 small sacks with only memories in them.
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This elderly man, for example, had spent hours trying to get into his house, which was in ruins, and had taken not gold or money, but photos of his parents. He called it his past.
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This father, for example, was feeding his baby with a bottle while there were dead bodies on the ground. The people with him said that the mother was under the rubble, and he was waiting for her.
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For example, there were people who dug up the bodies of their relatives with their hands, took them to their villages in the back of a truck and buried them themselves since there was no aid. When I asked them to tell me about it, they started crying with anger and asked, “If I tell about them, will they come back?”
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For example, I saw a father who went into his badly damaged house and took the TV because his children wanted to watch cartoons. When I told him there was no electricity, he said, “This is what I can do, my children are upset.”
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For example, another elderly man living in a tent next to his house said that his son had called him but he didn’t go because he didn’t want to leave his dog. He was actually old, but he said he would wait a little longer.
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Sister Zöre, for example, did not leave for a safer location with her husband who had a brain tumor despite her son’s insistence. Her son was so angry that he didn’t bring help for her. When I asked her why she didn’t go, she said, “I have six chickens, I can’t leave them alone.”
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Another mother complained about the excessive amount of food brought to her and returned one of the vegetable crates. “We are two people, son, this is enough for us, give it to others,” she said. This happens a lot.
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A young man in his 20s stopped me in the middle of the night and started talking to me because I was a journalist. He pointed to two collapsed buildings and said, “All my childhood friends are dead, what am I going to do now?” He hugged me and cried.
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A 15-year-old girl stopped talking when she heard that her classmates and teacher had died. She was looking at the photos she had taken with her friends and couldn’t stop crying. Her family was desperate to take her to the volunteer doctors.
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You should also know that there were people who froze to death in the rubble in Elbistan due to the –25°C at night. There were people who froze to death because volunteers were prevented from working and left to their fate.
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Let me tell you about the volunteers. For example, a volunteer had a nervous breakdown while collecting bodies from the rubble. He said, “We are collecting the bodies of children, brother, it hurts me so much.”
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A miner told me that they had been in 15 houses and that they had always pulled out dead bodies, and asked me to talk to his supervisors so that they would send him to the area where they pull out live bodies. He wanted to feel he was useful.
•Or again, I saw many volunteers not being able to eat the food prepared for the earthquake victims and trying to fill their bellies with the biscuits they brought. I saw those who went hungry because they thought the food was not theirs to eat.
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For example, I saw construction workers who went to search and rescue in the rubble for days without sleeping or eating. Every time they came back, they just drank a cup of tea and retreated to their corners.
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I also witnessed a firefighter, covered in dust and dirt, who after 6 hours of searching and finding survivors came out of the rubble just to smoke a cigarette, and before he finished his cigarette, rushed to the opposite building when a citizen said that there was a noise coming from there.
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I also witnessed the soldiers disobey the orders of their commander to “go and fetch the AFAD tents that had arrived” and say they would not leave without removing the victims from the rubble, despite the punishment they would receive.
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For example, there were volunteers who distributed all the aid to the people without even buying a piece of cake for themselves, and tried to spend the night without food or blankets.
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For example, I saw a mother going crazy at the funeral of her son. I heard her getting up and playing with her other son, saying, “I’ll prepare dinner for my son.” I heard her surviving son wailing, “I took him out, I brought him clean clothes.”
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I know it’s long, but that’s all I can summarize. No one is sane and healthy anymore…
