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.”