Two months after Türkiye-Syria earthquakes, volunteer rescuers are pained by those they couldn’t save
Volunteer rescue worker Bayram Çini still has nightmares about those he couldn’t save.
It’s been two months since Mr Çini — along with 50 of his fellow mountaineering enthusiasts from the Turkish city of Aksehir — volunteered to search for survivors after a series of deadly earthquakes flattened cities and villages across their country.
Four major earthquakes and hundreds of aftershocks struck along the Turkish-Syrian border starting on February 6, killing an estimated 57,000 people.
“I can’t forget the people’s desperation, especially their screams — I’ll never forget their screams,” he said.
“And the fact that they lost their children, their parents,” he added, his voice trailing off sadly.
Mr Çini described the earthquakes as an “apocalyptic disaster”.
He and his friends rallied quickly to use their mountaineering skills and equipment to save as many lives as they could.
The group — whose ranks included teachers, doctors and engineers — became known as the Akşehir volunteer rescue team or the Turkish acronym AKAK.
‘Please save my cat first’
It was in the city of Antakya that a subgroup of 10 men, led by Mr Çini, found a young man that would have a major impact on all of them.
Kerem Çetin, a 20-year-old medical student, was at home with his mother, his sister and their cat Strawberry when their five-storey apartment building partly collapsed.
When the team found him, Mr Çini said Kerem’s body was under immense pressure with the weight of the upper floors pressing down on his legs and lower body.
Strawberry was by his side.
“He did not show his pain to anyone,” Mr Çini said, but instead asked: “Please save my cat first.”
“The love and bond that he had with his cat touched our hearts,” Mr Çini said, describing the young man as kind, selfless and brave.
Mr Çini said Kerem was more concerned with the safety of the rescue team and of others that might be trapped in the building than he was with his own life and the immense pain he must have been feeling.
“‘You’re not superman’, I told him and we both laughed,” Mr Çini said, but added that he was in fact bearing the weight of the building without once complaining.
“‘I told him, ‘We are together even if we die. But if we survive, we survive together.'”
The team receive heartbreaking news
In the seven hours it took the team to free Kerem from the wreckage, they joked, laughed, shared stories and talked about Kerem’s future and the lives he would save as a doctor after his graduation.
He asked repeatedly about his sister, who the team had already dug free, and his mother, whose body was later found underneath the rubble.
As they worked, many aftershocks continued shaking the ground, causing Kerem great pain and possibly further injury, but his main concern remained the safety of the team, who had crawled into the partly collapsed building to free him.
As they risked their own lives to save his, a bond was formed between them all, during what Mr Çini described as their most difficult rescue both mentally and physically, and one that continues to haunt them.
Eventually they succeeded and Kerem was transferred to hospital.
But a member of the team who was a doctor said his injuries were severe and they worried about him greatly in the coming days.
Eight days later, Kerem’s sister and cousin reached out with the heartbreaking news of his death.
The rescue team were devastated.
“This is the first time I have felt so deeply affected like this,” Mr Çini said.
Through their efforts — rather than dying alone and in pain under the rubble — Kerem spent his final days surrounded by loved ones.
The team stays in close contact with Kerem’s sister, who is still recovering from her ordeal and loss.
Meanwhile, Strawberry is being cared for by family friends.
“It was a pleasure to touch every soul [that we freed] and that’s what comforts us,” Mr Çini said, referring not only to the 15 people they saved but also the many animals they rescued.
Even rescuing a bird brought them great happiness, he said, “because every life is precious”.
Türkiye works as ‘one heart’ to rebuild
The people of Türkiye now face the daunting task of rebuilding.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan put the cost of the earthquake at $US104 billion ($154 billion) — almost 10 per cent of the country’s GDP forecast for 2023.
Hundreds of thousands of buildings were destroyed with even more left unsafe.
The UN estimates more than 20 million people were affected by the earthquake with at least 1.5 million left homeless in Türkiye alone. At least 500,000 new homes will need to be built.
Survivors are sheltering in tents, container homes, university dormitories and even train carriages.
But before rebuilding can start, an estimated 116 to 210 million tonnes of rubble needs to be cleared away.
Across the border in Syria, more than 7,000 people were killed and an estimated 8.8 million people were affected, according to UN figures.
The UNDP estimated recovery costs in Syria at $US14.8 billion, saying the earthquake aggravated the already dire situation caused by the long war.
“Today, nine in 10 people in Syria live below the poverty line,” said UNDP’s Achim Steiner.
While Syria received plane loads of aid from more than a dozen countries, little is believed to have reached the worst effected areas under opposition control.
Back in Türkiye, the city of Antakya still lies in ruins. Mr Çini, said everything was closed, including shops and schools, and most families had fled to other cities.
While the government provides necessary assistance, volunteers across the country gather donations daily for those in need.
Mr Çini’s team still assists in gathering and delivering supplies from food and clothing to cleaning and sanitary items.
Working alongside them, volunteer Ismehan Öğdü said: “All of the Turkish people are collecting donations.”
She said even students from primary schools across the country had been raising money for earthquake victims.
“Turkey is one heart.”
But it will be a long time before the country’s scars begin to heal.
“You could be such a rich person, a successful person, a content person and you wake up there’s nothing left in your life.”
