Consider This from NPR - Parts of Turkey And Syria Are Reeling After Powerful Quake

Episode Date: February 7, 2023

Communities in northern Syria and southeastern Turkey are struggling in the aftermath of Monday's devastating earthquake and its powerful aftershocks.NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports on ongoing rescue efforts in the region.And we speak with Gönül Tol, director of the Turkey program at the Middle East Institute, who is in Hatay province in Turkey. She raises questions about the Turkish government's response to the tragedy.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu slash forward. Every second is important for saving lives. Every second. Some people, we are hearing their voices right now. We cannot reach them. Amar Salmu is among those searching for survivors of Monday's devastating earthquake in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria. He is in Syria, near the Turkish border. He's one of the White Helmets, a group of volunteer first responders that operates there. And he says

what they need most right now in order to rescue more people is heavy machinery. We have a number of heavy vehicles, but it's not enough to deal with around 200 buildings on the ground. It's so much. You need heavy vehicles to raise the rubble, to remove the rubble. The destruction is widespread on both sides of the border. At least 7,000 people are dead in both Syria and Turkey, and some 20,000 more are injured. NPR's Ruth Sherlock travelled to one of the worst-hit Turkish cities, Antakya. It's a city of around 400,000 people close to the border with Syria. On the way, we passed this huge fire at the port in a coast city,

and then around 20 miles out of Antakya, we started seeing this constant stream of ambulances, you know, sirens wailing, speeding out of town. At one building, Ruth meets with Erin O'Brien, a freelance journalist who works for The Economist. And together, they speak with Hamide Mansouroulou. She's a woman in her 70s. And she told Ruth and Erin that her son, Sadat, is trapped inside the building, which used to be seven stories tall. It's now half collapsed on its side. Mansouroulou watches intently as a digger chips away at the debris. Every time the bulldozer gets close to where her son is. She winces in pain,

watching and begging them to go gently and carefully. But the reality is that to try to reach him, they have to remove this thick layer of concrete. But in doing that, they might well crush him. What are you doing? She shouts hands to her head. A rescue worker who didn't want to give his name is looking for the boy. He is not sure if this guy's alive. He thinks he heard a sound, but he can't be sure.

Eventually, they do find Sadat, but it's too late. Rescuers wrap his body in a blanket and bring him that is playing out all through the region. Consider this. Right now in Syria and Turkey, it's a race to find survivors, even as aftershocks, freezing temperatures and the widespread damage make that task incredibly difficult. From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang. It's Tuesday, February 7th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply.

It's Consider This from NPR. Another area devastated by Monday's earthquake is Hatay. Hatay is the southernmost province of Turkey. It's on the border with Syria. And it's a very diverse city. In fact, I think it's one of the most diverse cities in the country. Gonul Tol is in Hatay currently. She is normally based in Washington, where she is the director of the Turkey program at the Middle East Institute. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us during this incredibly difficult time. Thanks for having me. I first just want to ask you, are you okay? Where were you when the earthquake hit? I was a few hours from Hatay. I was in Mersin with my family, with my sister and her four-year-old daughter, where we also felt the earthquake.

It hit pretty strongly in Mersin as well. And how is your family in the region doing at the moment? Unfortunately, we lost relatives who were trapped under the rubble. We waited for hours. We lost many of them. I'm so, so sorry. Thank you. Can you just describe for us right now what it looks like where you are when you step out and everywhere. Almost every other building collapsed. People crying. There are dead bodies on the streets. People screaming for help. It's a tragedy, really. And the city that I've known and loved for many years is not there anymore. Well, what kind of response are you seeing so far from authorities on the ground, either local authorities, national authorities?

Well, nothing. Turkey was hit by another very powerful earthquake in 1999, And I was there at the time. I was a student in college. And that was in northwestern Turkey. It was equally devastating. And at the time, newspapers that are now pro-government criticized the state agency's slow response. It's their inefficiency in delivering aid and not being responsive to the

needs of people. And the ruling AKP came to power after that tragedy in 2002. And President Erdogan's AKP came to power basically promising a more efficient governance, a government that was in tune with the demands and needs of the people. And he also legitimized switching the country's parliamentary system to an all-powerful presidential system without any checks and balances by saying this would make responding to crises and solving countries' problems faster. Unfortunately, that was not what I saw in Hatay yesterday. Well, speaking of President Erdogan, he has declared a three-month state of emergency in the country.

What do you make of that declaration, given the amount, the extent of damage that you are personally seeing right now? Well, I don't think that response is going to solve the problems. He's under a lot of criticism right now because from what I saw in Hatay, there were no government agencies, there were no civil society organizations, no rescue workers on the ground. Basically, people were trying to dig out loved ones trapped under the rubble with bare hands. And I think that's the most striking picture of Erdogan's new Turkey, where institutions are not there anymore. He destroyed institutions and he did not put anything in their place. And I think that was the picture that I saw. And that was the picture thousands of victims saw on the first day of this tragedy.

If you could speak directly to the president right now, President Erdogan, tell me what you would say. I'm angry. I'm angry that people died. I'm angry that there were no state agencies there. I'm angry that people were left alone. And earthquakes happen. But I think those people did not have to die if Erdogan and his government had done more. Gonul Tol is the director of the Turkey program at the Middle East Institute. She was speaking to us from Hatay province, one of the areas hardest hit in Turkey.

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us, Gonul. And again, I am so deeply sorry for your loss. Thanks for having me. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Elsa Chang. This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges. IU makes bold investments in the future of bioscience and cybersecurity, cultivates visionary work in the arts and humanities,

and prepares students to become global citizens by teaching more languages than any other university in the country. Indiana University, nine campuses. One purpose. Creating tomorrow, today. More at iu.edu.