The earthquake in Turkey is just the latest tragedy for refugees who fled war conflicts

When war broke out in Ukraine, Aydin Sisman’s relatives fled to the ancient city of Antakya, in a corner of southeastern Turkey that borders Syria.

They may have escaped one disaster, but another has found them in their new home.

They were staying with Sisman’s Ukrainian mother-in-law when her building collapsed last Monday when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake tore through much of Antakya, devastating the area in what some in Turkey call the disaster of the century.

“We have Ukrainian guests who fled the war, and they are also inside. We had no contact,” said Sisman, whose Turkish father-in-law was also trapped under the rubble of the 10-year-old building.

As rescuers dug through the piles of rubble, Sisman seemed to have lost hope.

Millions of refugees, like Sisman’s relatives, have found refuge in Turkey, fleeing wars and local conflicts in countries as close as Syria and as far away as Afghanistan.

There is at least 3.6 million Syrians who have fled their homeland’s war since 2011arriving in drops or in droves, sometimes overrunning the border, seeking shelter from punitive bombardments, chemical attacks and starvation. More than 300,000 people have come to flee their own conflicts and difficultiesaccording to the UN.

For them, the earthquake was just the latest tragedy, a tragedy that many are still too shocked to understand.

“It’s the biggest disaster we’ve ever seen, and we’ve seen a lot of it”said Yehia Sayed Ali, 25, a university student whose family moved to Antakya six years ago to escape the Syrian war at its peak.

His mother, two cousins ​​and another relative died in the earthquake. On Saturday, he sat outside his demolished two-story building waiting for rescuers to help him dig up their bodies.

“Not a single Syrian family has lost a relative, a loved one” in the quake, said Ahmad Abu Shaar, who ran a Syrian refugee shelter in Antakya that is now a pile of rubble.

Abu Shaar said people were looking for loved ones and many refused to leave Antakya, even though the earthquake left the town without habitable structures, electricity, water or heating. Many sleep in the streets or in the shade of ruined buildings.

“People are still living in shock. No one could have imagined this,” Abu Shaar said.

Certainly not Sisman, who flew from Qatar to Turkey with his wife to help reunite with his in-laws and their Ukrainian relatives.

“Right now, my mother-in-law and my father-in-law are inside. They are under the rubble… There were no rescue teams. I went up alone, took a look and walked. I saw bodies and we pulled them out from under the rubble. Some headless,” he said.

Construction workers examining the rubble told Sisman that while the top of the building was solid, the garage and foundation were not as strong.

“When they collapsed, that’s when the building was crushed,” said a shocked Sisman. He seemed to have accepted that his loved ones did not make it out alive.

Overwhelmed by the trauma, Abdulqader Barakat desperately pleaded for international aid to help rescue his children trapped under concrete in Antakya.

“There are four. We go out two and two are still (in) for hours. We hear their voices and they react. We need (rescue) teams,” he said.

In the Syrian shelter, Mohammed Aloolo sat in a circle surrounded by his children who escaped from the building which swayed and ended up folding like an accordion.

He arrived in Antakya in May from a refugee camp along the Turkish-Syrian border. He had survived artillery bombardment and fighting in his hometown in the central Syrian province of Hama, but called his survival in the quake a miracle.

Other parents weren’t so lucky. Two nieces and their families remain under the rubble, she said, holding back tears.

“I don’t wish that on anyone. I can’t say anything to describe it.”says Alolo.

Scenes of despair and mourning can be found throughout the region, which just days ago was a haven for those fleeing war and conflict.

At a cemetery in the town of Elbistan, some 320 kilometers (200 miles) north of Antakya, a Syrian family wept and prayed as they buried one of their own. Naziha Al-Ahmad, a mother of four, was pulled dead from the rubble of her new home. Two of her daughters were seriously injured, including one who lost her toes.

“My wife was good, very good. Affectionate, kind, a good wife, God bless her soul,” Ahmad Al-Ahmad said. “The neighbors died, and we died with them.”

The graves fill up quickly.

At the Turkey-Syria border, people transferred body bags to a truck waiting to take the remains to Syria for burial in their home country. Among them was the body of Khaled Qazqouz’s 5-year-old niece, Tasneem Qazqouz.

Tasneem and his father were killed when the earthquake hit the border town of Kirikhan.

“We pulled him out from under the destruction, from under the rocks. The whole building fell,” Qazqouz said. “We worked for three days to get it out.”

Qazqouz signed his niece’s name on the body bag before sending it on the truck to Syria.

He prayed as he let her go.

“Say hello to your father and give him my wishes. Say hello to your grandfather and your uncle and everyone,” he shouted. “Between the destruction and the rubble, we have nothing left. Life has become so difficult.”

(with information from AP)

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