This time the bombardment did not come from the sky, but from the ground. For years, millions of Syrians have fled the area controlled by the dictatorial regime. They live in camps, villages, small towns in northern Syria, still traumatized by the terrible memories that haunt them in these hard-to-bear material conditions. They pass the time waiting to return home or leave, stuck between Assad’s Syria and Erdogan’s Turkey.
On the eve of Monday, February 6, these Syrians, accustomed to waking up following clashes between jihadist groups and the Kurds, or between the Kurds and the Turkish regime, stood up on a land that was agitated very violently. At first, some thought that a new bomb had invaded space, but that was not the case. Buildings shook, electricity went out, lamps and cupboards fell. “We thought it was judgment day,” said Ibrahim Al Agha, caretaker of a hospital in Soran, a small town north of Aleppo, under Turkish control. Together with his wife and two children, they managed to descend from the second floor to the ground floor, where they spent the night with neighbors. “The building was badly hit, the tremors were repeated the next day, the children were crying thinking it was a new war. Nine people from a neighboring building, from the same family, lost their lives”, adds Ibrahim , who has lived in Soran since 2013, after escaping the Assad regime to avoid compulsory military service. In his new city, “some homes affected by the earthquake collapsed much later. In this area, housing construction is very poor,” he adds in a trembling voice.
In the following days, downtown Soran becomes a gathering place. Hundreds of people live outside in -3°C temperatures. They light a fire at night. This earthquake of 7.8 degrees on the Richter scale, followed by another, eleven minutes later, of 7.6 degrees, caused a multiplication of disasters. The next day, the hospital was full of wounded: “We have no more beds for the patients, some have remained on the ground, sleeping on blankets.”
A birth under the ruins
Jindires, a Kurdish town located in the department of Aleppo, is the most affected by the earthquake. 80% of the buildings are completely destroyed, with 580 victims, at the time of writing this article, a figure set to increase, given the number of injured and victims still under the ruins. Shocking stories keep coming from this town. Khalil Al Sawadi told AFP that while he was looking for a friend, “we found him dead next to his wife and his sister. A few minutes later, we heard a cry, that of a newborn: the baby survived by a miracle, the umbilical cord linking him to his mother who lost her life”.
For three days, buildings do not stop falling in this city of 13,661 inhabitants. This is also the case in Kobani, a Kurdish town in northern Syria. The tremor was less strong than that of Jindires, but in this city, which has already suffered a lot from the war between Turkey and Daesh in 2014, many buildings are weakened. Zarine Kenno, a high school student, tells us the story of that night: “At four o’clock in the morning, my mother woke us up, we ran down the building, my father managed to save my little one at the last moment. three-year-old brother, a wall fell on them, my father was injured”. Like most of the townspeople, she lost her home. “We are staying with friends. We are lucky, many residents are still in cars, others have gone to refugee camps, no humanitarian aid has reached us so far,” she adds. , in tears.
Privileged Turkey
It is not easy to exchange with witnesses of this horror. “What should I say? We were used to death since the war in Syria, but at least we were dying individually, one by one; today, it’s a global death”, testifies Souad Maouardi , displaced from Homs in central Syria to Sarmada in the countryside around Idlib. The building where she lived is destroyed. “Families still hold out hope that one of their relatives trapped under the ruins is still alive. The rescue teams do not have the necessary means to probe the piles of rubble”.
Humanitarian aid has been brought from Europe, 1,200 rescuers and first aiders equipped with modern means are already on site. But to access the country through Turkey, you have to cross the Bab El Hawa border post, initially closed by the Turks due to the earthquake, increasing the number of Syrian victims. For Hoshnek Hassan, journalist, director of the North Press agency and resident of Kamechlo, in northeastern Syria, “it is only a pretext, Turkey only wants to save its citizens, no matter what happens to it. Syrians, especially the Kurds”. “In Kameshlo, he confirms, several buildings were seriously affected, but it was less hard than in the west, the survivors of the disaster headed for nearby villages”.
Now, according to the Turkish Disaster Management Authority, more than 20,000 people have lost their lives due to the quake, including 3,371 Syrians. The hope of finding other survivors is dwindling, especially with the freezing temperature. Between the area controlled by the Turks, that of the Kurds and that of the Assad regime, these Syrians are waiting for humanitarian aid which cannot easily reach the area. Turkey is severely affected by the earthquake. As for the Assad regime, it blames Western economic sanctions for its failure to save victims in the city of Aleppo, which it has regained control since 2015.
His adviser Bouthaina Shaaban told BBC Arabic: “We don’t have enough bulldozers, cranes or oil because of European and American sanctions.” However, the UN special envoy for Syria, Geir O. Pedersen, says: “The emergency response in Syria must not be politicized after one of the most catastrophic earthquakes in the region for nearly hundred years”. In these terrible conditions, the Syrians are still suffering atrocious violence, whole families are still under the ruins, others are suffering from unbearable cold. Humanitarian aid must be provided urgently before it is too late.