Swiss Celine traveled to her devastated homeland – these are her impressions US concerned about legalization of Israeli settlements

Celine comes from a Turkish-Swiss family. Her mother is Swiss, her father is a Kurd who grew up in Turkey. A large part of her family lives in Kahramanmaraş province, about 100 kilometers north of the Syrian border. At the place reported as the epicenter of the earthquakes.

Most of their relatives survived the quakes. Any help came too late for her uncle, her aunt and their son. The couple and their child could not be pulled out of the rubble alive. The earthquake killed them.

The family mourns. The relatives in Turkey have lost everything. A roof over your head. your belongings. Part of the family.

To say goodbye and support the relatives, Celine decided to travel to Turkey with her family – to the disaster area.

With the province’s airport closed to civil aviation, the family left for Turkey in a minibus and car on the evening of February 7, the day after the first quakes.

An uncertain journey begins.

The 45 hour journey

Celine and her family have been on their way home for over 40 hours. Celine will no longer find her homeland as she knows it, as she remembers it. The province is in ruins.

The locals lack everything: warm clothes, food, shelter. The temperatures at night are between -3 and -5 degrees.

“When we heard about the deaths in the family, we left for Turkey within five hours,” says Celine. In those few hours, the family has bought relief supplies that they want to distribute on the spot.

“We barely had time to think about what lay ahead. The funeral of my relatives couldn’t be long in coming, because a body can’t be kept for long without refrigeration,” says Celine.

So far the journey has gone well and the family has reached the epicenter in five hours. The hardest part is yet to come: “The roads in our homeland are destroyed. But there must be two ways to reach the province.”

The family noticed the first effects of the earthquake in Nurdagi – about 50 kilometers from the earthquake’s epicenter. Many petrol stations ran out of petrol.

“We don’t know what’s coming, but we have to support our family and local people,” says Celine. The 22-year-old is a registered nurse and works in a clinic. The young woman can administer IVs, treat wounds and treat people. “Because of my work I was able to take a lot of medical equipment with me. The people around me supported me in this.”

But she cannot yet judge whether the task is up to her on the spot. The family wants to live on the street for at least one and a half to two weeks. “There are no warm rooms. No toilets. Not groceries that can be bought,” said Celine. “The switch is likely to be very difficult.”

Her employer granted her two weeks of unpaid leave. If there is a local organization she can join, she will. But first she wants to be there for her family, who apparently had to wait a long time for help.

“My family lives in a Kurdish town. Help arrived very late. The first relief supplies only reached the province three days after the first earthquake. We thought this would happen. That was also one of the reasons why we decided to travel there.”

arrival at home

The closer Celine and her family drive to the crisis area, the more damage the roads become. But the family reaches the town of Pazarcik despite the many cracks and potholes. The family does not make it to the funeral in time. This especially affects the grandfather: he could not be there when his brother was buried.

Her homeland is like a ghost town, Celine reports. “The streets are dead. The people live in small tents that they have built themselves. You can’t buy anything. Many people are still under the rubble. We realize that they have all lost their lives.”

Celine met many people who desperately needed support – especially psychological ones. “Strangers hugged me and cried. You felt such a small weight lifted off their shoulders. They realized that they didn’t have to go through this difficult time alone.”

Celine dispenses medicine and heals a head wound. She no longer needs to provide medical assistance, there is a team of doctors near the province. “However, many people have approached me with pain and fear. These people got medicine from me.”

The woman from Basel also took animal feed with her, which she scatters on the deserted streets. “Animals are just as important to me as people. It was clear to me from the start that I had to help them too.”

You can feel the donations coming in slowly. However, tents, shrouds and accommodation are still most needed on site. With no place to sleep, the family stayed in the minibus.

They feel strange in their home country. And I miss the place.

Abrupt journey home

After just one day, all donations from the trunk of the family’s car and minibus come to an end. The Kurdish family and people were touched by the courage to travel to the disaster area.

But they were also very concerned. Aftershocks continue to occur. The family endured several aftershocks, one of which had a magnitude of 4.5. “It was pretty scary,” Celine said. “It made us abandon our plans and head back to Switzerland.”

Celine leaves her family with one concern in particular: “The donations will probably not be enough to rebuild the completely destroyed city. And at some point no one will remember the earthquake.”

Starting a new life in Switzerland is not an option for the family living in Turkey. You are facing an uncertain future.