When she asked her boss if she could help out in one of the hardest-hit cities, he immediately said yes. On Saturday she arrived in Antakya, a city in the Turkish province of Hatay. “I walked into the gym. Three hundred men were sleeping there. Victims, aid workers, children, animals. Then I got a lump in my throat and realized: this is serious.”
The 30-year-old is a third-generation Turkish. Her grandfather was born in the affected country, she herself lived in Vlaardingen until five years ago. There she first followed the chef training and then a catering study. She moved to Istanbul, looking for a challenge. Arslanturk now works in the hospitality industry there, but her dream is to start her own restaurant or lunchroom.
When she heard that a cooks’ association in Istanbul was going to offer help to victims and aid workers, she immediately signed up. After a day’s bus journey, the club arrived. They cook dishes such as lentil soup, rice with meat and macaroni. “People need to be fed well.” Together with the other cooks, she feeds about two thousand people a day.
Describing the situation in words is difficult for the Dutch. She literally has no words for it. She does call the area cold. Houses are empty, everything is under rubble. She tries to lend a listening ear to the victims. But Turkish people are not such talkers, she says. They also do not always want to accept the money that Arslanturk received as donations from acquaintances. In the end, they often tack.
‘We only received appreciation’
The work of the 65 aid workers and eight rescue dogs of the Dutch aid team Usar is over. After six intensive days, they leave earthquake-hit Turkey.
It feels double, says spokesperson Jop Heinen from the Turkish city of Hatay. “We are leaving a heavily affected area tomorrow morning (Monday, ed.). We know and see that it will take years before life here is somewhat normal again.”
But the search and rescue team’s job is done. No living people were found on Saturday and Sunday. That’s why the team makes way for others. Because according to Heinen, a lot of help is still needed. Especially in the form of shelter, food and drink.
He finds the situation unimaginable. “There are streets in which hardly a single building is left standing.” He expects people to experience many consequences for a long time to come. At the beginning of the week, the team mainly found shaken people on the street. “As the week went on, we saw more and more resignation. Then you saw that people realized that.”
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We were even offered fruit and bread from people who had little themselves
Impact
On Saturday, the German rescue team stopped the search because of violence between Turks. The Austrian army also reported that it would stop, but later resumed the rescue operation because it receives military protection from the Turkish armed forces. According to Heinen, the Dutch team has not been bothered by this. “We received nothing but appreciation. We were even offered fruit and bread from people who had little themselves.”
The Dutch team managed to pull twelve people alive from under the rubble. “It is almost impossible for us as a team to realize. Twelve human lives. But we also often had to bring sad news. That has an impact on our team.”
That is why the Dutch will leave for the base camp in the Turkish city of Adana on Monday. From there, they fly to an unknown location to recover. There will be a ‘debriefing’ and a doctor and psychologist for the necessary help. The team will land at Eindhoven Air Base on Thursday.
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