Why don’t the citizens go to camps, schools, and mosques but they wait on the ruins?

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After the 7.7-magnitude earthquake in Kahramanmaras, the number of dead has increased to 31,643. An unknown number of people are still under the rubble.

They hope some of them are alive. The situation is also bad for those who survived the earthquake. The most difficult thing is the lack of shelter, clean water, electricity, telephone lines and internet, and many other deficiencies.

To solve these problems “tent cities” are being built. That is, camps are built. But many citizens do not go. We will list the main reasons from observations and interviews, and tents should be placed on the side of the bad ones.

• Many buildings have been damaged, but there are no efforts to evacuate those who are under the ruins. Those people can’t/don’t want to leave the ruins hoping to bring some people or organizations to those ruins.
• A mother said “I have heard my daughter scream twice from this building where I go!” one of them said “I don’t have patience with these bad things, maybe my 4-year-old grandson is still alive” which means they don’t want/can’t go away mentally.
• They are waiting for their dead or alive. When their people are taken out, if they are not there, they are left homeless on the side of the houses or they are taken to hospitals as “homeless people”. They want to protect their dead.
• If their people come out alive, they want to be there at that moment and welcome them. A young man called his sister in a loud voice and said “you are welcome sister, you are welcome my dear!”
• Ruins are places of solidarity with other people and neighbors. They find the power of self-restraint there.
  • This news was translated by Yonca Sarsilmaz

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