Fleeing one tragedy years in the past, Syrian refugees discovered themselves operating into one other on Monday. Ridwan Gurre had the intuition to cover from roaring warplanes when he lived in Syria throughout its civil struggle. But little ready him for the rumble of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that devastated his adopted dwelling in Türkiye on Monday.
The 42-year-old joined practically 4 million Syrians when he moved his household for the security of southeastern Türkiye. He spent seven years constructing a brand new dwelling in Diyarbakir, which as soon as suffered assaults from the terrorist group PKK. His life was getting again on monitor. Now it’s gone.
Gurre was compelled to spend the previous two nights along with his spouse and two sons on the turquoise carpet of the town’s historical Grand Mosque or Ulu Cami. The large worship home was rebuilt from one other enormous quake practically a millennium in the past however survived this unscathed. Gurre felt secure for the second however unsure about what would occur subsequent. “When we were in a war, we knew that when the planes flew overhead, it was time to take shelter,” Gurre remarked.
Hundreds of others slept with their heads perched on their belongings or walked round coated in blankets as Gurre contemplated his destiny. Women breastfed their newborns whereas cheerful youngsters, blissfully unaware of the tragedy round them, performed in busy corners.
“When the earthquake came at such an unexpected hour, we didn’t know what would happen next,” Gurre stated.
The pre-dawn jolt killed 1000’s of individuals of their sleep and left untold extra trapped beneath slabs of concrete within the chilly. Others died in aftershocks rolling throughout Türkiye and components of neighboring Syria day and night time. The dying toll in each international locations has been rising by the a whole bunch each hour and surpassed 11,200 on Wednesday afternoon.
Aleppo native Mercan al-Ahmad recalled life in Syria, the place she struggled to search out meals. Now she will be able to barely sleep once more. “We escaped death in Syria, and now we were struck by an earthquake in (Türkiye),” stated the 17-year-old. “We can’t sleep. We are scared. We live in fear of another strong aftershock.” She spends stressed nights and days worrying about her future and her relations again in Aleppo, one of many provinces struggling in depth injury in Syria. “We have relatives in Aleppo. There are many casualties; many houses collapsed,” she stated. “We heard some of them belong to our relatives.”
Ihlas Mohammed stated she heard related news about her family members in a village between Aleppo and Idlib. “We can’t get much news about them,” she stated. “There was a war, we escaped, and now this (quake) happened. We have nothing,” she stated.
Türkiye turned dwelling to the world’s largest refugee inhabitants, however opposition politicians are promising to ship the Syrians again dwelling within the run-up to Türkiye’s May 14 elections.
Turkish mom Aydegül Bitgin stated everybody on the mosque was the identical. “We are here with Syrian refugees; we are all victims,” the 37-year-old stated.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
