‘I can’t stand it, it’s so sad’
A Turkish national living in Cork has described his heartbreak as the death toll from Monday’s earthquake nears 10,000 across Turkey and Syria.
Erdal Zor told the Cork Independent he can no longer bring himself to watch videos of the aftermath of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake which struck Turkey’s Gaziantep province just after 4am on Monday morning.
“Those [videos], I am avoiding. I was watching at home yesterday and I just stopped watching. I can’t stand it, it's so sad,” said Erdal who has been living with his family in Carrigaline since 2016.
He added: “You don't want to watch anything; you don't want to see anything because everything you see is like memories, and you think how can these people survive?” Striking close to the Syria-Turkey border, the earthquake is one of the most powerful to hit the region in the last century and has claimed thousand of lives in both nations.
Following the initial quake, an aftershock measuring 7.5 in magnitude struck over 100km north of Gaziantep in Turkey’s Kahramanmaras province. Over 100 aftershocks were recorded overall.
At the time of going to print, the death toll stood at over 11,200 across both countries with tens of thousands more injured. Rescuers in affected areas have been working around the clock in extremely difficult winter conditions to pull people from the rubble.
“They are talking about 10,000 buildings collapsed and they have to reach each of them,” continued Erdal.
“Many people are still under the buildings. If you want to compare with a bomb, these 2 earthquakes are almost equal to 600 atom bombs, the power, the energy.”
Earthquakes are relatively common throughout Turkey; however, Monday’s disaster is the most powerful to strike the country since 1939 when over 30,000 people lost their lives.
In 1999, while still living in his home city of Istanbul, Erdal experienced a 7.6 magnitude earthquake which struck the Izmit area, approximately 100km away from his home.
“I was around 21, I cannot forget it. I was in a building and the home just shook almost one minute. Any moment you are waiting to die. You never expect such a thing.
“I was thinking it’s a war, somebody bombed, or some construction working, or some vehicle hit the building. My mum said it was an earthquake when I was in the middle of shock. She said to stay under the table.”
Erdal said the experience caused his mother to wake up every night for 5 years at the smallest of sounds or movements near the home.
Cork students
A small group of teachers and students from Coláiste Éamann Rís in Cork city were lucky to avoid disaster while on an Erasmus trip in Turkey after a last-minute change to travel plans.
The group had initially planned to travel to the city of Malayta on Monday but decided to stop in Istanbul. Malayta was one of the many cities devastated by the earthquake.
The school said on Monday: “Our staff and students in Turkey are all fine - an earthquake has struck their destination of Malayta, thankfully, they had stopped in Istanbul, and had not reached their destination school yet. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have lost their lives and homes.”