Russians and Ukrainians are blamed: the mood of Turkish residents a year after the earthquake is described

On February 6, a powerful earthquake hit Turkey. According to official data, 69 thousand people died. A year ago we talked with Yana Vlasova, who has lived in Turkey for more than 20 years. Then she went to the destroyed regions as a volunteer. A year later we called again.

It turned out that, by and large, nothing has changed since then: people live in tents and containers, the cities have not been cleared of the destroyed houses, and there is no one else to help the victims.

Read about how citizens were left alone with their troubles in the MK material.

Yana Vlasova found herself at the epicenter of the disaster on the third day after the earthquake. She worked as a volunteer in one of the hottest spots – the city of Adiyaman. Then, over the course of a year, she returned to the destroyed cities again and again, bringing humanitarian aid to people who had lost their homes.

— Some time ago I went there again. I thought I’d look at it one last time and finally calm down. I hoped that the situation had returned to normal. But when I arrived, the city looked like zombieland. Dejected people with bowed heads wandered the streets,” Yana began.

After the earthquake, President Erdogan promised to provide municipal housing to the victims. True, not free. People who have lost their homes are given the right to receive preferential loans. So you will have to pay for new apartments.

— As far as I know, the program does not work yet. I was in Adiyaman in the fall. I saw that council houses were being built on the hills on the outskirts of the city. It is prohibited to drive up and see how construction is going on. They are not allowed into the territory. You can look from afar. It is unclear what is being built there. The city itself has not yet been cleared; demolition work continues. When clearing out the rubble, no one looks to see whether there are bodies there or not. Everything is going downhill. Outside the city limits, mountains of bulk construction waste have formed.

In winter, work intensified. They assumed that during the cold season there would be less construction dust and it would be washed down by rain. But caustic dust still flies in the air. More than 80 percent of the population suffers from colds and inflammatory diseases, many have bronchitis.

According to the interlocutor, in some cities people have been living in tents for more than a year.

— I was told that in December in Hatay there was a huge tent camp right next to the bus station. Residents of Adiyaman, whose houses survived but had cracks, pitched tents near their houses. They are afraid of living in unsafe buildings. During the day they run into their apartments to change clothes and wash themselves, and spend the night on the streets. It is unknown when people will begin to move into new houses. There is a huge queue for housing. Those who have lost their breadwinners will receive first.

There are 29 container camps in Adiyaman. A small grocery market and a laundry with dryers – that’s the entire infrastructure of the temporary shelter.

“These camps are guarded by military and police officers. The situation there is tense, people are pushed to the brink, fights often break out, and incidents of theft occur. Locals work in schools and have set up a sewing workshop in a tent on a voluntary basis.

Yana lived for three days in the so-called VIP container for officials.

“I was placed in the container of the head of the local disaster agency, where he, his wife and two children were housed. All containers are standard, with a total area of ​​21 square meters. Furniture includes a bunk bed, a folding sofa, a built-in kitchen, a shower with toilet. Ordinary people sleep in cabins on mattresses and with minimal amenities. In December and January, these trailers leaked, the roofs were covered with cellophane. Containers are heated with air conditioning, but not everyone has them. If you live there permanently, then you can go cuckoo.

Those living in the affected regions notice: they have forgotten about us.

They were remembered about them only on the anniversary of the tragedy, February 6: they paid tribute to their memory and laid flowers. Brief information flashed on the news. Nobody mentioned helping those in need. And the victims themselves no longer ask for help; they don’t need anything. When we drove past the shops in Adiyaman, I was happy at first, I thought that at least some life was being restored here. But my escort from the local Ministry of Emergency Situations hastened to disappoint me: “There are no sales, no one is buying anything, people come to the store just to change the situation.” A friend of mine lives in the affected city of Malatya and also said: in order to somehow switch, the locals organized knitting clubs and something else, otherwise you could go crazy.

Immediately after the earthquake, residents of the affected regions left for large cities on the coast. Almost everyone came back. “Real estate rental prices in Turkey have skyrocketed. People just weren’t up to it,” explains Yana.

— There is rampant inflation in the country. In Istanbul, you travel on public transport and see that the Turks are tense, everyone is stressed. Before the New Year, a man committed suicide in a shopping center. He was left with three children and a debt of 15 thousand lire, which he could not pay. Türkiye is among the top five most expensive countries in the world. In Antalya and Kemer, no one knows what the tourist season will be like with such huge prices. A friend of mine from France noticed that it is cheaper to go to the Louvre than to our Topkapi Palace. Private education has become more expensive. Restaurants have raised prices and reduced portions. If earlier salad and bread were given for free, now everything is paid, and a tip is included in the bill. The quality of the products has dropped; for example, butter can be replaced with margarine. Factories are closing in Istanbul because there are no orders. It is not easy to send cargo to other countries; the goods are not collected. Problems also arose with the sale of agricultural products.

Ordinary Turks blame the Russians and Ukrainians for what happened: “Recently I was on the subway, locals stood nearby and in Turkish they said to us, look at these people, they’ve come in large numbers, because of them the economy collapsed.”

“Against the background of all this, the Turks forgot that, it turns out, there was an earthquake somewhere. This is the last thing on the locals’ minds. Considering that nothing is shown on TV about the consequences of the disaster, many people think that everything is fine there.

— Why don’t earthquake victims come forward and hold rallies?

“They have no strength left for rallies.” They live one day at a time. The main thing is not to stretch your legs. But we organized rallies in support of Palestine, but forgot about our own people. The next municipal elections will be held in the spring, and a lot of money has been pumped into the election campaigns. We also have our first space tourist, the state shelled out millions of dollars for his flight, while we are here collecting for baby food and diapers. Ordinary people turned out to be of no use to anyone.

Yana is still collecting humanitarian aid for the victims. She observes with regret that not a single Turk was swayed: “I asked them to at least buy candy for the children. No, they didn’t give anything. Ours are also tired. We can no longer help everyone, there are not enough resources. After the elections, they completely hated me, saying, why are you helping them, they voted for Erdogan, let them now reap the benefits.”

— In those regions there were so many broken destinies, and suicides also occurred. Emotionally people can’t stand it. Last year, a teacher whose wife and child died committed suicide. At first he received psychological help. Did not help. He ended up shooting his daughter and then killing himself. The girl survived. The man decided: why live? It’s easier to leave…