“I Prayed to God and a Swiss Came”

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Havva Nur Koşar, 27, lay in the cold darkness under heavy rubble and collapsed concrete pillars near her home in Antakya city for nearly four days. Right next to her lies her brother: dead. And her cat, who had been behaving so strangely in the last moments before the earthquake in the eastern Turkish province of Hatay, was probably still somewhere.

But now Havva Nur Kosar was all alone, with nothing but her pajamas and the dim light of her phone. For a day and a half, the cell phone gave her a little light, a little comfort. For hours she cried for help, begging for water in the dark. But no one heard her beg. Then the cell phone battery died – the young woman lost all hope. “When I thought it was all over now, when I had lost all hope, I asked if I wanted to die soon,” the young Turkish woman told Blick.

Six million homeless in one fell swoop

Instead came Bruno Pinto (22). “I prayed to God and a Swiss came,” says Havva Nur Koşar. Pinto was one of the helpers who flew to Turkey with the Swiss rescue team immediately after the devastating earthquake and searched for survivors in the rubble on the spot. “Come on, be careful, okay?” cried Pinto through a hole dug in the pile of rubble. A colleague filmed from the background. Pinto reached out and encouraged the traumatized young woman under the rubble: “Very good, you are doing well. Come!”

Havva Nur Kosar crawled slowly out of the rubble, barefoot, his star-patterned pajama pants all dusty. In one hand she held the useless mobile phone, with the other hand she wiped the tears from her face.

Only much later did the young woman realize the catastrophe that had befallen her homeland. The earthquake of February 6, 2023 killed at least 50,000 people, including her brother. Entire cities were razed to the ground. Nearly six million people became homeless. Havva Nur Kosar also had no home.

Swiss save eleven people from the rubble

Today she lives with her parents in the city of Gaziantep. From there she sends Blick the video with which she wants to thank her Swiss rescuers. “From now on, you are part of every breath. And as long as I live, I’ll be thankful that you saved my life. I’m so glad you’re here, that you came,” says Havva Nur Koşar.

The young Turkish woman is one of eleven people the Swiss rescue team managed to rescue alive from the rubble in the first days after the disaster. Switzerland brought 80 specialists, 8 sniffer dogs and 18 tons of material directly to the crisis area with a special plane.

In addition to the rescue operations, the local team provided emergency relief at a hospital and brought 100 tents into the country for homeless families. The Confederation provided a total of CHF 8.5 million for aid projects of various local partner organizations (CHF 3.1 million went to Turkey, CHF 5.4 million to the hard-hit areas in Syria).

Switzerland could not have done this alone

Without this aid, the suffering of the affected population would have been much greater, says Martin Jaggi, head of the Swiss humanitarian aid unit on the ground. But that is not a reproach to the Turkish authorities. “In the event of a catastrophe of the magnitude of the earthquake in eastern Turkey, even our authorities in Switzerland should count on international support,” Jaggi emphasized in an interview with Blick.

And yet: the anger of the suffering population in eastern Turkey at the authorities is great. They would have been far too slow to react – and many say they have watched the vicious game of corrupt building authorities for far too long. “I’m even angrier than before the earthquake,” says Havva Nur Koşar.

It is clear to them: Turkey needs a new political start. She will therefore vote for opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu (74) in the elections on Sunday. “I hope this is a good decision for my Turkey,” she says. Now more than ever your country needs good people in the right place.

Source: Blick