After The Earthquake In TurkeyThe Broken City

What was once the main shopping street of Kırıkhan is now a pothole "This here, that was a seven-story building," says Uğur Aslan, pointing to a pile of rubble.

Debris is everywhere along the way, soldiers cordoned off the area on Sunday Aslan, 37, survived the earthquake in Turkey but saved his parents by throwing a blanket over them to protect them from falling debris.

Now he walks through the destroyed streets and repeats this one sentence over and over again: “As in the war Just like in war.

” Exactly one week ago, in the border area between Syria and Turkey, the earth shook twice within nine hours – and stronger than anyone had ever experienced here On an area half the size of Germany, houses collapsed, roads collapsed, the earth tore everything down.

More than 30,000 people have died so far, and the number is still rising The extent of the destruction is enormous, including in Hatay province where Kırıkhan is located.

On two piles of rubble that were once Kırıkhan, rescue workers in the city of 120,000 people continue to work to save people But the chances of rescuing people from the huge mountains of reinforced concrete a week after the tremor are vanishingly small.

Uğur Aslan gets an idea of ​​the destruction in his city He kept pointing to a pile of rubble and saying, "They didn't even start their search here.

" When the ground shook for the first time at 4:17 a m.

on Monday morning last week, Aslan was at home with the family He would have made it out but his parents are no longer fit on their feet.

"So I went with them and protected them as best I could Then my sister-in-law ran up and said the tremor had blocked the front door.

I smashed the front door down with a hammer, took my family downstairs ” All survived unharmed.

Rescue with seven rescue dogs Rescue workers from the organization International Search And Rescue (ISAR) arrived in Kırıkhan as the first professional helpers, including 43 helpers from Germany with seven rescue dogs the Federal Association of Rescue Dogs was there They were all on site 28 hours after the first 7.

8 magnitude quake - and only about 19 hours after the second 7 5 magnitude quake.

"It looked catastrophic here," says Bünyamin Aydın about his arrival The Berliner, who lives in Turkey is the General Coordinator of ISAR Turkey.

He planned the arrival of the German rescue workers in the earthquake area When aid was just beginning elsewhere, ISAR was already in action in Hatay province.

The Turkish section is in Kırkhan with about 80 people After the arrival of the Germans, a 60-year-old woman was rescued from the rubble together, and the material was just being unloaded.

“We were ready like animals, we started right away,” says Aydın Even a week after the quake, it is eerily dark in Kırıkhan after sunset.

There is no electricity, long queues form at the food counters in the city, and many people sleep outside even when the temperature is minus ten degrees Small fires made of cardboard and wood scraps can be seen on every street corner, where people warm themselves.

Han means hostel in Turkish, kırık broken: the broken shelter – kırıkhan There is no better way of summarizing the suffering of the people here.

On Saturday, reports circulated that looters were on the move in Hatay province, and shots were also said to have been fired The German rescue team therefore decides during the day to cancel a planned observation tour through the town and with the rescue dogs.

But the helpers explain: If there are any reports of people still living in the pile of rubble, they would be ready immediately At 7 p.

m on Saturday, something happened that nobody had expected: the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) was mobilized in the city for a rescue operation.

Turkish volunteers heard voices in the remains of a house The THW arrived in Kırıkhan last Wednesday evening with 50 men and women and set up their tents with those of ISAR on a hill above the city.

The THW also has four dogs with them It is pitch dark in Kırıkhan when a dozen THW volunteers set off in the minibus with a local driver.

140 hours after the earthquake there are signs of life from an old woman in the ruins of the house The turkish col-leagues need a special cutting and spreading tool, which THW has with them, in order to get to the woman.

The situation on site is then confusing: Soldiers with long guns at the ready have cordoned off the area The mood is tense, a bystander curses the late help: "I told you the day before yesterday, there are still many people living in the rubble", he calls in the direction of the Turkish helpers.

"You didn't want to listen to me " Zeynep Kahraman's sister (right) in vague hope when her sister was initially rescued Photo: Piroschka Van De Woouw/reuters The rescue workers of the THW go to the huge mountain of rubble.

It must have been a multi-storey building as big as the pile is The whirring of the generators is always gone, all the lights are turned off, the few bystanders are warned to be quiet: the entire block stands still when workers talk to the trapped woman.

The woman only speaks Arabic, and the German helpers contact her via a translator After about four hours, they actually carry the woman out of the rubble on a stretcher.

She is 88 years old, has a broken forearm and a broken leg Completely trapped, she lay in a small hole with her head on a dead man's shoulder.

The smell of corpses cannot be ignored long before the rubble site It's hard to imagine how the old woman survived five days in the hole.

It borders on a miracle The German ISAR group and THW have rescued five people alive from the rubble of Kırıkhan since their arrival.

The rescue of 40-year-old Zeynep on Friday evening caused a stir The rescue workers from ISAR had alerted those living in the area: they could still hear voices in the ruins of the house on Wednesday.

With dogs, the specialists from Germany can identify the place where the woman is "Don't give up!" The rescuers split into two shifts; Day and night they try to get to the woman.

The building was so wedged when it collapsed that they had to look for a suitable access route First, the helpers can lay a supply hose to the woman in the rubble, through which she can be supplied with liquid.

From that point on, a doctor is also on site near the buried person, and their condition is being medically monitored The sister of the trapped person is also at the scene of the accident, encourages her, "don't give up!".

After more than 60 hours of work and a second salvage shaft that the rescuers have to set up, the time has actually come: Zeynep is carried out of the rubble She had been lying next to her dead husband and their two dead children the whole time.

When they are rescued, all the helpers have tears in their eyes It's a huge tension falling from them - but there is also joy in having saved one more person in this devastating catastrophe.

The almost exuberant mood gives way to mourning the next day Zeynep died in Adana hospital on Saturday night.

Again the helpers from ISAR hug each other Peter Kaup is the medical director of the organization and encourages them.

"As doctors, we know that after such a difficult rescue, the first 48 hours are crucial," he says into the silence of the tent Zeynep died in the presence of her sister and her family, they could have said goodbye to each other.

This is of "immeasurable value" for the relatives In the ISAR camp, tamara heron takes a walk with her Australian Shepherd Mayuma.

Mayuma is awake, keeps barking briefly and is quiet when heron strokes the lower back of the animal.

"People came to us in the city and asked explicitly about the dogs," she says The animals are professionals, their noses trained to sniff out living humans.

The organization's seven dogs were also at the forefront of the rescue of Zeynep "It's amazing what a dog can do on piles of rubble," says Reiher.

"When they smell someone, they bark like they're sounding an alarm " This means that they have to skillfully interpret the different nuances in barking and walking on the rubble.

In Kırıkhan, bystanders often comment on the behavior of the rescue dogs “We were so effective here on site, because we cooperated so strongly with each other and because ISAR Germany was so well prepared," says Bünyamin Aydın from the Turkish section.

ISAR Turkey was assigned the city of Kırıkhan by the Turkish civil protection authority AFAD because the province of Hatay was given the highest priority for aid due to the magnitude of the destruction At 5:30 a.

m last Monday morning, Aydın had already obtained confirmation from the German ISAR section that an operation in Turkey was planned.

From then on everything fell into place The Germans took off in the evening, ISAR Turkey organized a truck to the airport in Gaziantep.

15 tons of equipment were loaded and driven to Kırıkhan On the way there, the car radio keeps picking up Arabic stations.

Only about five kilometers separate Kırıkhan from the Syrian state border, and it is only about 50 kilometers as the crow flies to the Kurdish city of Afrin Given the destruction in Kırıkhan, it's hard to imagine what it's like over there.

For ISAR and THW in the Turkish area of ​​operations, the earthquake situation in Syria remains a big unknown Search operations continue at ISAR Turkey This Monday, the two German organizations want to end their search and rescue operation in the region.

“The time window for search measures is almost completely closed There are hardly any people left alive in the rubble," says Steven Bayer, head of the German ISAR team.

Both the THW and ISAR Germany are leaving their tents and parts of their material on site because ISAR Turkey will continue the search operations Helper Tamara Reiher with rescue dog Mayuma: "It's unbelievable what a dog can do on a pile of rubble" Photo: Cem-Odos Güler On the roads into the city from the north, it's almost impossible to get through because of the numerous rescue trucks.

However, progress is much slower on the opposite track: It seems as if everyone who can somehow leave the province of Hatay The traffic jams stretch for dozens of kilometers without a single car moving.

Local resident Uğur Aslan, who was able to save his family, also sees no future in Kırıkhan "What am I supposed to do here?" he asks, walking through the destroyed city.

He also speaks German, Aslan grew up in Vienna After the earthquake he happened to watch the arrival of the German rescue team and offered his help and local knowledge.

"There's nothing here anymore " Uğur Aslan really wants to bring his parents back to Austria.

He himself wants to try it in Germany .