The death toll and casualties from the earthquake that hit southeastern Turkey on early Monday morning (February 6) continues to climb. Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has announced a Level 4 Disaster alert, the highest level on the alert system that triggers a call for international aid. In addition to the quake’s epicenter in Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Diyarbakir, Adana, Osmaniye, Gaziantep, Malatya, and Hatay provinces have all been affected. Survivors from several of these provinces described the current situation to Medyascope correspondents as rescue efforts stretched into the afternoon.
In the province of Hatay, Turkey’s southernmost region that borders Syria and the Eastern Mediterranean, survivors of the quake described the disaster to Medyascope correspondents. Nazmi Öztürk, a resident of Hatay’s major port city of Iskenderun, described the moment in which the quake hit: “Suddenly everything started falling on top of me. I thought all hell had broken loose. I heard loud booming noises. It lasted one and a half, two minutes. It got progressively more violent. It was difficult to tell when it ended because of the aftershocks.”
In Adiyaman province, one survivor described the nearly complete destruction of a local mosque: “This is the biggest earthquake we’ve ever seen. We received news that the relatives of some neighbors had perished. The minaret and main building belonging to our local mosque also collapsed…The area is very snowy and people are in an extremely tough situation. We are all on the ground floor at the moment and are prepared to evacuate if we feel the slightest tremor. Everyone is extremely uneasy.”
In Gaziantep, a survivor described how electricity outages following the quake made accessing help and contacting victims difficult: “Rural areas [of Gaziantep province] are especially difficult to reach. In small villages, transformers have been overturned, there is no electricity, and help has not yet arrived. The animals belonging to many farmers have perished. Also in the center [Gaziantep city center] many places are in ruins… Some gyms have opened their doors as meeting centers for victims.”
Among the thousands of destroyed buildings in the region is Gaziantep’s castle, which stands on a hilltop above the city center. The castle, constructed in the 200-300 centuries CE, has been nearly flattened by Monday morning’s quake.
In the major southeastern city of Adana another survivor described the difficulty in contacting rural areas surrounding the city: “This is the worst earthquake I have seen since August 17 [1999 Izmit earthquake]. With my family, I took shelter in the ground level of a building. In the city center [Adana] there are collapsed buildings here and there and many people’s homes have been damaged. But Adana’s rural areas are massive and we have been unable to get any information from there.”
In Kahramanmaraş, the city at the earthquake’s epicenter, one survivor described how emergency services were operating at full capacity, with many citizens forced to wait for help.Speaking to Medyascope, Maraş resident Müge Duymaz said the following: “There are still people buried under the rubble. There are firefighters trying to save a family of 5 who are trapped. There’s a young child trapped under rubble on the other side but the firefighters are still unable to help. There’s a limited number of firefighting crews. We are just waiting our turn [to be helped].
