ANTAKYA, Turkey (AP) — Six days after a massive earthquake killed more than 28,000 in Syria and Turkey, sorrow and disbelief are turning to anger and tension…
Six days after a massive earthquake killed more than 28,000 in Syria and Turkey, sorrow and disbelief are turning to anger and tension over a sense that there has been an ineffective, unfair and disproportionate response to the historic disaster.
Many in Turkey express frustration that rescue operations have proceeded painfully slowly, and that valuable time has been lost during the narrow window for finding people alive beneath the rubble.
Others, particularly in the southern Hatay province near the Syrian border, say that Turkey’s government was late in delivering assistance to the hardest-hit region for what they suspect are both political and religious reasons.
In Adiyaman, southeastern Turkey, Elif Busra Ozturk waited outside the wreckage of a building on Saturday where her uncle and aunt were trapped — believed dead — and where the bodies of two of her cousins had already been found.
“For three days, I waited outside for help. No one came. There were so few rescue teams that they could only intervene in places they were sure there were people alive,” she said.
At the same building complex, Abdullah Tas, 66, said he had been sleeping inside a car near the building where his son, daughter-in-law and four grandchildren were buried. He said that rescuers had first arrived four days after the earthquake struck. The Associated Press could not independently verify his claim.
“What good is that for the people under the debris?” he asked.
The sentiment that not enough is being done to free people’s buried family members has taken hold in other parts of the earthquake zone as well. In the ancient city of Antakya, a crush of onlookers stood behind police tape on Saturday to watch as bulldozers clawed at a high-rise luxury apartment building that had toppled onto its side.
Over 1,000 residents had been in the 12-story building when the quake struck, according to family members who were watching the recovery effort.
