Hope and fear in Turkey after devastating earthquake

Last Friday’s deadly earthquake in Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city, left unforgettable images in the minds of many people. It claimed the lives of more than 100 people and injured more than 1,000. The magnitude 7.0 quake, which was felt as far away as Athens and Istanbul, was followed by a partial tsunami that swept through a number of towns on the Aegean coast. At least 17 buildings collapsed.
Yet more than two days after the shockwaves, just as all hope was fading of finding any more survivors in the rubble, two tiny hands were spotted waving from the debris — giving us cause, perhaps, to believe in miracles. Sixty-five hours after the quake, a three-year-old girl, Elif, became the 106th person to be rescued. The incredible photo of her tiny fingers clinging tightly to a rescuer’s hand touched the hearts of many people — including me — who will never forget it.
That rescuer, who cradled Elif’s head and kissed her tear-stained cheeks, said: “It was a great gift to all of us.” In a message posted on Twitter, Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca praised the rescue teams, saying: “Elif’s rescue has given both hope and courage to our fight to save lives. Life has won once more.”
Elif’s rescue did indeed offer hope to the whole of Turkey that, even after three days, there might be more people clinging to life. There were. A four-year-old girl was pulled from the rubble, alive, 91 hours of the quake. Ayda, who has beautiful green eyes, lost her mother in the earthquake but her father was rescued a day before she was. “The name of the miracle is Ayda,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a message posted to his Twitter account. “Thank God as we are given a new hope after 91 hours with your smiling eyes.”
The man who rescued Ayda said he has a child of his own, the same age as her. Like many other heroic rescuers, he traveled to Izmir from an eastern Anatolian city to join the efforts to help the people of the city and heal their pain. Photos of these two small, yet strong, survivors, Ayda and Elif, appeared on the front pages of newspapers, and social media users also shared the images using the hashtag #HalaUmutVar, which translates as “There Is Still Hope.”
Earthquakes are not uncommon in Turkey, which sits on active fault lines and is one of the world’s most seismically active zones. Unfortunately, they are part of life in the country, which has suffered devastating tremors in the past. Studies have found more than 95 percent of the country is prone to earthquakes. They can happen at any time, often in areas with large populations. The Izmir disaster has once again raised fears of a major earthquake striking Istanbul or elsewhere.
I remember the earthquake that hit the Marmara region in 1999, in which about 17,000 people lost their lives. It was a terrible incident that will always remain in my mind, as it does for many people in Turkey. My family and I were visiting the country on a summer holiday and were in Bursa, a city close to Istanbul, when the earthquake happened. We had to sleep on the streets for days. Some people were in tents.
In those days there was no social media to spread awareness of what was happening. Maybe that was a good thing because, you will not be surprised to hear, in the aftermath of the Izmir tragedy social media in Turkey is once again polarized by fierce debates between conservatives and seculars. Some extremists said Izmir is a city of non-believers and therefore its people were being “punished” with the earthquake. Those who shared such views were arrested, according to the Interior Ministry.
Other people criticized the authorities and demanded to know what happened to all the money raised by the national earthquake tax, which was introduced after the 1999 quake and is supposed to be used to fund earthquake-protection measures.

Lessons must be learned from these tragic events so that we do not experience even worse tragedies in the future.

Sinem Cengiz

Meanwhile, nine people have been detained in connection with building collapses, Izmir’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office said. This is a correct and welcome decision that should serve as an example to others. In addition, the Turkish Parliament on Tuesday passed a motion to form an investigative committee, after accepting a proposal by five political parties to implement measures designed to prevent damage caused by earthquakes. During a Parliament Advisory Board meeting, political party deputy chairs agreed that the motions would be combined and discussed. It came after opposition parties complained that several proposed motions to discuss earthquake protection measures had been rejected by the ruling party in previous years.
Lessons must be learned from these tragic events so that we do not experience even worse tragedies in the future. The power to prevent this from happening is in our hands.

• Sinem Cengiz is a Turkish political analyst who specializes in Turkey’s relations with the Middle East. Twitter: @SinemCngz