Half a million Syrian refugees live in Gaziantep, the largest city in the earthquake-hit region of Turkey. After the earthquake, the trauma returned, as did the sound of the war bombs they left behind.
Fethiye Kazziz, 50, sits on a bench next to her husband in a camp of makeshift tents in Gaziantep, about an hour from the border with Syria, where civil war has been raging since 2011. “I still feel dizzy all the time”, admits the refugee to the Lusa agency, who went to that city in southeastern Turkey eight years ago to treat leukemia – she also has diabetes and hepatitis C. Two months later, the whole family – her six children, each with five others, a total of about 30 people. They live in a duplex, which is now full of cracks. He admits to being “in a very bad state” psychologically. “I lost my house in Syria. It collapsed because of the bombs. Now, with the earthquake, the trauma has returned with full force”, it says. Fethiye Kazziz admits to having been more frightened on February 6, when the earth shook in southeastern Turkey, than when he heard the bombs explode in Syria. “Now, it was God’s work. It was God’s whole earth shaking and there is no place to escape. In Syria it was man-made bombs and we could always try to escape”emphasizes.
Imad Haji, who lives with his brother’s family, fled from Aleppo ten years ago and finally settled in Gaziantep, where he did everything – worked in a gym, a shopping center, moved and even starred in the movie “Swimmers”, about two Syrian sisters who flee to Germany. The 33-year-old man says that since February 6, the sound of the bombs has been ringing in his ears again. “People are afraid to go back to their homes. Syrians almost have a phobia. When a truck passes by and they feel the earth shake, they immediately think it’s an earthquake.””, he notes, emphasizing that there are people who always feel the earthquake “all the time”. “For Syrians it’s like being punched in the face twice. First the war, then the earthquake”CV.
Ayshe Hussein, sitting in front of her tent, says that when she felt the earth shake, she just had time to run away from home with her two children, ages 11 and 7, in pajamas, barefoot, as “it was snowing and raining in the street”. “It was terrible, it was fear. I can’t describe what I felt”account.
Ismail Samad, who came to Gaziantep from Azaz, a city close to Aleppo, fears the future and economic consequences of an earthquake that hit the entire region. The factory where he worked remains closed, he notes, and what little money he had in his pocket has already disappeared after the earthquake. “We don’t know where we’re going next”says Ismail to agency Lusa.
Omar Mohammed, who already had a difficult life in Gaziantep, is also now concerned about how much more difficult it will become. He was an electrician in Aleppo and in Gaziantep he used his knowledge to collect broken appliances, which he repaired and then sold on the street. “Sometimes the situation was so difficult that if I couldn’t work, I couldn’t eat”says Omer and asks how he will hold up after the earthquake, when the movement in the streets, even in Gaziantep (not so affected by the earthquake), is not the same. “Since I entered Turkey, I have no future. I can’t imagine a future. I just have to survive. Now everything is missing”says Omar, who, feeling the earth tremble on February 6, ‘returned’ to Aleppo and the bombs that destroyed his house and his car. “I’ve lived everything I’ve lived in Syria. I’ve lived everything”he says.
Source: DN
