On Sunday, survivors and families of victims marked the 11th anniversary of an earthquake in the eastern Turkish province of Van that claimed 604 lives. One of the worst in a decade, the earthquake was followed by another 16 days later, which killed 40 people. Today, it became a symbol of solidarity and charity as aid poured in from across Türkiye and the world, and for survivors, a horrible tragedy.
The province bordering Iran largely recovered from the disaster, with new houses, and buildings rising again but the risk lingers elsewhere in Türkiye, a country with multiple active fault lines.
Van was rocked with a 7.2 magnitude earthquake at 13:41 local time on Oct. 23, 2011, which heavily damaged central parts of the province, as well as the district of Erciş and surrounding villages. The first tremors claimed 604 lives and preceded a 5.6 magnitude earthquake on Nov. 9. Both led to destruction and damage for thousands of buildings.
It had the highest death toll for an earthquake since a 45-second tremor in 1999 claimed thousands of lives in northwestern Türkiye, but this time the country was better prepared in response. Search and rescue crews rushed to the province and thousands helped dig out the survivors from the debris of buildings. Moreover, donations poured in from everywhere for residents who lost everything in the disaster while politicians, who were late to reach the scene in the 1999 earthquake, were rapidly mobilized and visited the earthquake-hit areas in the immediate aftermath. Aid campaigns, which began with the swift deployment of 75,000 tents sent to the displaced, were followed by the installation of prefabricated housing units. Within one month of the disaster, the government laid the foundation for new houses for victims. In one year, 17,489 residences were handed over to displaced families.
Yet, memories are not fading away for survivors, like Kılıçarslan Koçak, who lost some 50 relatives in the earthquake, including his wife, two children, mother, brother and wives of his brothers. The 54-years-old Koçak, who lives in the worst-hit district of Erciş, visits their grave regularly and remembers the moments of disaster. Koçak escaped death as he had left home a short time before the tremors began. He witnessed his house collapsing. “I lost people I was together with just a few minutes ago. I helped search crews to find them but I lost my people. I have nothing left behind from them,” he laments. Koçak said the state helped him and others immediately and that is his only solace. “If only I could have something to cling upon, a memento from people I loved but there was nothing left under the debris,” he told Anadolu Agency (AA) on the anniversary of the disaster.
Ferzende Zan visited the ruins of the mill he worked at on the anniversary of the tragedy. He barely escaped the place before it collapsed in the earthquake and made a run to his home. Seeing it was only slightly damaged, he returned to the mill and saw no one was trapped under the debris. He then joined others to save people trapped in their homes. “We had nothing to dig out with, though. There were shovels, pickaxes in the houses but they were beneath the debris. We tried to dig out people with our bare hands but we could pull out only one person and he was already dead,” Zan recalled the aftermath of the earthquake. Zan said he lost an aunt and many other relatives in the earthquake and hope it “won’t repeat.” “This is suffering no one should go through. I remember the good old days whenever I pass through these ruins,” he said.
