World
Turkey’s Gaziantep goes from a refuge to a site of devastation
Gaziantep, Turkey – When Kasem al-Abrash felt the bottom shaking beneath his toes, his thoughts instantly went again to his hometown of Idlib in northern Syria.
He had fled for his life from there to Gaziantep, throughout the border in Turkey, in 2020.
However on Monday morning, like hundreds of thousands of individuals throughout southern Turkey and northern Syria, al-Abrash woke as much as the heavy shakes of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which hit the broader area and left loss of life and devastation in its wake.
“I realised, oh no, I’m truly presupposed to be in a secure house, in Turkey,” al-Abrash stated.
He instantly ran down the constructing as components of his condo collapsed.
His ideas went instantly to his household and mates nonetheless in Syria, the place the earthquake has additionally destroyed numerous lives.
“In Syria I discovered to handle these sorts of conditions, however I by no means anticipated to must relive that trauma once more,” al-Abrash stated.
He’s not the one one to have arrived in Gaziantep searching for refuge, solely to be cruelly stunned by Monday’s earthquake.
When 21-year-old regulation scholar Karina Horlach awakened within the early hours of the morning to her mattress closely shaking, she had flashbacks from the final time she was in Ukraine.
“It’s February, and precisely one 12 months in the past I used to be woken up by that very same mattress shaking,” Horlach instructed Al Jazeera, with panic in her voice. “However then, I realised I wasn’t in Ukraine. It took me a while to know what was happening.”
Horlach is enrolled in an Erasmus scholar programme in Gaziantep.
She was given the chance to flee from the conflict in her personal nation and settle as a brief refugee in a supposedly safer surroundings.
She by no means anticipated to get post-traumatic reminiscences of Kharkiv, her hometown, within the metropolis that has sheltered her for the previous six months.
“I assumed I used to be experiencing an air strike once more,” Horlach stated. “It gave me flashbacks of house.”
Syrian reminiscences
Gaziantep, one in every of southern Turkey’s main cities, has a inhabitants of just about two million folks, and between one-quarter and one-third of them are Syrian refugees.
Fifty-year-old Sawsan Dahman lives in the identical constructing as al-Abrash. When it began shaking, she ran right down to the road together with her household of 4 kids.
She appeared desperately to discover a safer shelter because the chilly air, rain and snow battered her face.
Dahman stated that she instantly considered the large mosque positioned in 100 Yil Park, a inexperienced space close to the centre of the town, the place she discovered native Turkish folks ready to assist.
She instantly liaised together with her Syrian contacts by means of numerous WhatsApp teams to tell them of the secure shelter.
“Typically, due to language boundaries, Arabic audio system listed here are left behind in emergency conditions,” Dahman stated. “I wished to fill that hole.”
Aftershock chaos
In just some hours, Dahman had change into some extent of reference for the Syrian group in Gaziantep, in addition to ladies of any background who discovered themselves alone.
A widow, Dahman has already confronted having to care for her kids alone on the journey from her house in Damascus to Turkey.
However as she spoke from the frequent prayer room within the early afternoon, a giant aftershock shook the mosque.
With horror in her eyes, Dahman grabbed her kids – aged between 17 and 23 – as flashbacks from the conflict in Syria started overwhelming her.
For others, it was the extra instant reminiscence of the sooner earthquake that set them working in each route.
The minaret shook, threatening to fall on the group. A baby was hit by a automotive, amidst a rainstorm, and other people gathered to assist the woman.
Amidst the despair and hostile climate, folks have discovered short-term frequent shelters the place they’ll, some wrapped in blankets inside improvised tents on park benches. Others took refuge inside cafes – the few that had dared to open – sitting in circles round electrical heaters.
Warming his palms across the heater, 24-year-old economics scholar Izzat Umman thinks of the shock of waking as much as his books falling on his head.
“I didn’t know what was happening, I simply ran to the streets, seeing different folks working,” he stated. “We’ve by no means skilled one thing like this right here. A single minute felt like 15.”
Already battered by the unusually dangerous climate circumstances, Gaziantep was not ready for such an emergency, he added. “It got here so unexpectedly that we’re nonetheless in shock.”
Because the day went on, the aftershocks didn’t cease and got here unexpectedly, leaving Gaziantep in fixed worry of the subsequent quake. The traumatic expertise will resonate for a lot of for a very long time to come back.
Many have now taken to fleeing the town of their automobiles or buses, with the airport closed.
Strolling across the rubble of the buildings and streets he used to know by coronary heart, al-Abrash noticed a picture his eyes had been bitterly conversant in.
“We already needed to take care of traumatic experiences from the Syrian battle. Now that we’re a number of kilometres from the border, it looks like historical past has repeated itself. And we’ll must confront ourselves with one more trauma.”
World
Iran sentences award-winning director to prison ahead of Cannes
The award-winning Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has been sentenced to eight years in prison and lashings just ahead of his planned trip to the Cannes film festival, his lawyer told The Associated Press Thursday.
Rasoulof, 51, known for his film “There Is No Evil,” has become the latest artist targeted in a widening crackdown on all dissent in the Islamic Republic following years of mass protests, including over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini.
Iranian authorities haven’t acknowledged the sentence but Rasoulof and other artists had co-signed a letter urging authorities to “put your gun down” amid demonstrations over a 2022 building collapse that killed at least 29 people in the southwestern city of Abadan. In the time since then, artists, athletes, celebrities and others have been called for questioning or faced prison sentences.
“This judgment is issued due to Mr. Rasoulof signing statements in support of the Iranian people,” his lawyer Babak Paknia told the AP. He said that those statements, along with his tweets and further social activities, were found to be instances of ‘action against national security.’
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA’S ‘MEGALOPOLIS’ TO PREMIERE AT CANNES
Rasoulof faced trial in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, Paknia added.
The tribunals, often handling cases of those with Western ties later used in prisoner swaps by Iran, have been internationally criticized for not allowing those on trial to pick their own lawyers or even see the evidence against them in closed-door hearings.
The director also faces lashings, fines and asset seizures, his lawyer said.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment over Rasoulof’s sentencing. He had been scheduled to head to Cannes for the premiere of his new film, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” later this month.
“There Is No Evil,” which tells four stories loosely connected to the use of the death penalty in Iran, won the Golden Bear prize at Berlin in 2020. Rasoulof wasn’t there to accept the award due to a travel ban imposed on him by Iranian authorities. Shortly after receiving the award, he was sentenced to a year in prison for three films he made that authorities found to be “propaganda against the system.”
He has faced repeated prison sentences and film bans in his native Iran, whose Shiite theocracy long has railed against Western-embraced artists as a part of a “soft war” against its policies. Yet Iran has become known on the international film circuit for daring, thought-provoking movies outlining the challenges of life in the Islamic Republic.
Fellow filmmaker Saeed Roustayi and his producer similarly faced legal action last year after traveling to Cannes to show “Leila’s Brothers.”
World
A look at Chinese investment within Hungary
China has invested heavily in Hungary’s infrastructure and EV cars.
Under the spotlight is the Budapest Belgrade cargo train line. It evades all major Hungarian cities and has been built using Chinese credit. It is said to cost far more than it should with a poor investment return. It is estimated to pay for itself in about one hundred years. And still, some argue in favour of the collaboration.
Watch the full report above.
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