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The Nightmare is far From Over for Türkiye and Syria
It’s been 3 weeks since two large earthquakes and subsequent aftershocks rocked the region. Here is the reality from my perspective, 10 hours away from the quake zone, in Istanbul.
On Monday 6th February 2023, the Earth’s tectonic plates crashed into their new long-awaited positions, with no heed for the cities, buildings, men, women and children that they caused catastrophic damage to.
In Türkiye, the area affected is approximately the size of Germany. Turkish cities such as Adana, Gaziantep, Antakya, Hatay and Diyarbakır, are all but gone.
The figures are unfathomable. 47,000 people dead, thousands of others missing, millions homeless. In minutes, two massive earthquakes that rocked Turkey and Syria turned entire cities into mounds of rubble. Two weeks later, the scale of the devastation is still being unearthed. The true impact will not be fully understood for decades. (The Guardian).
I live in Istanbul, a mere 10 hour drive (or 1 hours flight) from the affected part of the country and I am only just beginning to be able to put my horror in words, 3 long weeks after the event.
