Turkey’s Quaking Crisis

With a rising death toll of 48,000 from the devastating earthquakes in Turkey, many have been in physical, mental, and financial crises ever since. The major earthquakes struck south-eastern Turkey near the Syrian border on February 6th, 2023. The first of the two earthquakes reached a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale. The earthquake triggered a tsunami causing more victims and destruction to this already terrible disaster.

About 62 miles (100km) of a major fault line were destroyed, causing immense damage to the buildings near the fault line. The depth of the shifted tectonic plates reached 10.5 miles (17km). The country faced mass destruction. At least 4 million buildings were destroyed, including 345,000 apartment buildings.

As of March 13th, 2023, over 48,000 have died and 115,000 are injured across 11 Turkish provinces. At least 13.5 million people were affected by the earthquake. Of the 356,000 pregnant people across the earthquake-affected areas, only 39,000 of those people are expected to give birth.

            Former foreign exchange student, Yaprak Tokyay (who was not extremely personally affected by the earthquakes), says “...Hopefully we will get through this as soon as possible. . . still we find people who are alive under the rubble which is very hopeful that some people probably still live.” Yaprak has the opportunity to share information through her social media to her friends around the world. She is looking for any good news. “I’m far away from the area, I’m ok because of that. But we are hearing so much bad news, so we are all sad.”

            Yaprak also expressed her concern about the presidential election. “The elections are coming, and my only fear is that people will vote for our current president, and he sucks. He didn’t do anything. All the people who posted on social media, and he didn’t do anything. The next few months will be interesting to see how their lives and our lives are going to change.”

            Survivors from the earthquake, too afraid to enter their homes which may collapse at any moment, have set up makeshift shelters. Families set up tents next to their own apartment buildings. People are freezing to death in shelters they can barely provide for themselves.

            Crises and disasters fill the streets of Turkey while people are trying to survive. Thousands have not had the option of survival.