The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bad luck, politics impede earthquake rescue efforts
Far-flung areas, dense population, bitter cold among obstacles.
Days after an earthquake hit southern Turkey, rescue efforts are still going on across the region. And despite significant pledges of international aid, these efforts have been painfully difficult. The death toll across Syria and Turkey stood at more than 12,000 on Wednesday, already marking it as one of the deadliest natural disasters of the 21st century. It could get worse as the days drag on,
1. The earthquake affected a huge area of land where lots of people live.
Monday morning’s earthquake and aftershocks were so large that there was damage hundreds of miles away in Beirut and Damascus, Syria. Residents in Egypt even felt its shakes.
The earthquake, believed to have happened due to events in the East Anatolian fault system, had an epicenter near the town of Gaziantep in southern Turkey. It was measured as a 7.8-magnitude earthquake and then there were a series of large aftershocks — the largest, a 7.5 magnitude temblor about 60 miles away from of the original epicenter, was so big that some seismologists consider it a separate earthquake.
The epicenter of the initial earthquake was relatively shallow, too, about 11 miles underground, according to U.S. Geological Survey. As the Washington Post reported earlier this week, “that means the seismic waves did not have to travel far before they reached buildings and people on the surface, leading to more intense shaking.”
Despite the risk of earthquakes in the region, this is a highly populated area. The World Health Organization has estimated that 23 million people live in the impacted areas of Turkey and Syria. Almost all who lived in the region had not experienced a major earthquake within their lifetime, with most recent earthquakes in Turkey in different areas.
“It’s difficult to watch this tragedy unfold, especially since we’ve known for a long time that the buildings in the region were not designed to withstand earthquakes,” USGS scientist David Wald said in a statement.
2. It came in the middle of the night at a time of unusually cold weather.
The first earthquake hit at around 4:15 a.m. local time. This meant that people were not congregated in schools, offices or markets, but spread out in apartments or houses.
There’s another reason many people were inside: The area has been seeing an abnormal cold front, with temperatures as much as 15 degrees below average for this time of year, with freezing lows. Turkey’s General Directorate of Meteorology tweeted this week that temperatures are expected to be below seasonal norms through at least Tuesday.
Severe winter temperatures cause major complications for rescue efforts, significantly raising the risk that any survivors of the quake could die from exposure before being rescued. With many using their bare hands to move rubble, the cold affects rescue teams, too. And even once rescued, there is little adequate shelter. In many parts of Turkey and especially Syria, too, electricity remains out and gas supplies, widely used to heat homes, are destroyed or dwindling.
“We don’t have a tent, we don’t have a heating stove, we don’t have anything. Our children are in bad shape. We are all getting wet under the rain and our kids are out in the cold,” 27-year-old Aysan Kurt told reporters from The Associated Press in Turkey. “We did not die from hunger or the earthquake, but we will die freezing from the cold.”
3. Its epicenter was a border region already touched by conflict and war.
The ill effects of the nearly 12-year-long Syrian civil war loom over the region with devastating cost, in particular in the parts of northern Syria that remain outside of government control.
In these rebel-held parts of Syria, rescue work is done not by the state but by various nonstate actors — most notably the White Helmets, an aid group that has been supported by Britain, the United States and other international groups. The regions already have been with many people still believed to be stuck under rubble and rescue teams reporting supply issues and logistical problems.
Why can’t these rescue efforts go faster? It certainly isn’t because of the efforts of the rescue teams, who have been working through the night in shocking conditions. Instead, there are four major reasons, a combination of bad luck and bad politics that fused to make a perfect storm. decimated by frequent shelling and brutal fighting.
The earthquake is only the latest humanitarian disaster to affect the region. In a statement, International Rescue Committee President and CEO David Miliband said that even “24 hours before the catastrophe, over 15 million Syrians were already in need of humanitarian assistance, more than at any other time since the conflict began” in 2011.
Across the border in Turkey, there are an estimated 3.6 million refugees, including many who lived in sprawling refugee camps near badly hit cities like Gaziantep. Last year, Human Rights Watch warned that many lived in perilous conditions due to legal employment restrictions and rising xenophobia in Turkey.
“We do not know the exact number of refugees impacted and we might not for some days, but we fear the number might be significant, given the epicenter of the quake was close to areas with high concentrations of refugees,” Matthew Saltmarsh, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, told Agence Francepresse this week.
4. Political divisions loom surrounding the rescue efforts.
The Syrian government is a pariah in much of the West for widespread human rights abuses during the civil war. Many nations, including the United States, have placed economic sanctions on it, although most of these sanctions carve out exceptions for humanitarian assistance.
In the past, international aid groups reached rebel-held northern Syria through a border crossing in Turkey called Bab al-hawa, but the earthquake has effectively cut that link.
“The road connecting the city of Gaziantep to the crossing is in one of the most damaged areas and is currently inaccessible,” Washington Post reporters Sarah Dadouch and Paulina Villegas wrote.
There were once several border crossings, but Russia — a key Syrian ally with veto power on the U.N. Security Council — forced all the others to close crossings in 2020, describing the aid as a violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian government.
After the earthquake, Syria has called for sanctions to be lifted and international aid to be delivered, which it can then redistribute — moves that analysts like Charles Lister, director of the Syria program at the D.c.-based Middle East Institute, have called “opportunistic.”
In Turkey, too, there are worries that the government is less focused on a speedy response and more on defending its power. With President Recep Tayyip Erdogan facing an election in May, questions about the loosely regulated and allegedly corrupt construction boom his government has overseen may sting.
Erdogan has quickly come out on the defensive, accusing government critics of spreading “fake news and distortions” and suggesting the government would go after those who tried to cause “social chaos.”
On Wednesday, internet-monitoring group Netblocks reported that Twitter appeared to have been blocked on several networks across the country and pointed to the government as a likely culprit. It’s a potentially cynical move: Rescue efforts had been documented on social media and some trapped survivors had even taken to tweeting their location — but it was the platform where criticism was rampant.
‘It’s difficult to watch this tragedy unfold, especially since we’ve known for a long time that the buildings in the region were not designed to withstand earthquakes.’ David Wald, scientist, U.S. Geological Survey
For Judith Delus Montgomery, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, New Year’s Day celebrations in her childhood home always included a taste of her mother’s homemade soup joumou, a hearty stew with a pumpkin base.
It’s also a potent symbol of emancipation.
Delus Montgomery, now an attorney and a founding member of the Haitian American Lawyers Association of Georgia, learned the story from her family: Under French rule, colonizers forced enslaved Africans to cultivate squash for soup joumou — but forbade them from eating it. When Haitians won their independence on Jan. 1, 1804, the once forbidden dish became, as Delus Montgomery put it, “our meal of freedom.”
Centuries later, soup joumou’s enduring place on the dining table has helped generations of Haitians reflect on the legacy of the Haitian revolution, the series of conflicts between slaves and colonists that culminated in the soup-eating tradition – and in the world’s first Black-led republic.
“My mom let us know that it was a symbol of our independence and that it was what our ancestors drank. We knew very early on about the importance of the Haitian revolution and what it means,” Delus Montgomery said. “It was instilled in us that it was a very big deal.”
In Delus Montgomery’s experience, more and more African Americans are also “understanding the role Haiti played in their freedom.”
Slave rebellion in colonial Haiti, then a wealthy territory that was among the world’s largest sugar producers, kicked off in 1791. When independence from France was gained 13 years later, the former colony made history for having staged one of world history’s largest and most successful slave uprisings.
More milestones quickly followed. On the first day of its existence as an independent nation, Haiti banned slavery. It was the first country to do so. The country’s first constitution, published one year later, stated that position unequivocally: “Slavery is forever abolished,” it read. Haiti’s abolition of slavery also extended to the slave trade (in the U.S., by contrast, there was a 57-year-gap between the abolition of slave trade and slavery).
“There’s a pride that we have that’s innate and it is because we know the history of our ancestors,” Delus Montgomery said. “I’m able to do what I do and be who I am because of them.”
Julia Gaffield is a history professor at Georgia State University whose research focuses on Haiti. In her view, celebration of Black history must emphasize, and not erase, Haitians’ bold revolutionary acts, and the message they sent to slaveholding nations around the world.
“Haiti must be at the center of every conversation about the abolition of slavery,” she wrote. “Haitian defied all odds and fought courageously for their freedom; no one gave it to them.”
Finding inspiration in history
Watson Escarment and Claude-henry Pierre are both members of Lawrenceville’s Good Samaritan Haitian Alliance Church (GSHAC). Each learned about the Haitian revolution in different ways, and at different life stages.
Pierre grew up in Haiti and was taught the history of the revolution in school.
“For me, my childhood recollection is learning that we have made history in Haiti. We have a unique history and Haiti stands for human dignity, for self-determination,” he said.
The revolution, he explained, was framed as a “major contribution” to world history.
“It was the most radical revolution in the history of the world, to create a nation out of nothing, slaves defeating one of the most powerful armies in the world at that time.”
By contrast, Escarment grew up outside of the Caribbean country, though he was born there. He lived in South Florida before moving to the Atlanta area over 20 years ago. Learning about the milestones of the Haitian revolution as an adult helped him reevaluate his heritage, and challenge the largely negative connotations and U.S. media portrayals of his homeland.
It continues to suffer from natural disasters and political instability, including a recent presidential assassination.
Growing up, “you weren’t proud to be Haitian,” Escarment said, noting he faced harassment and stigma because of his country of origin, which many around him connected to poverty or disease. “To me, (Haiti) was not something I wanted to be necessarily associated with at the time.”
That mindset changed when he began reading about the fight for Black freedom that led to Haiti’s founding.
“I was really blown away learning about that … I came to fall in love with my ancestry, with who I am,” he said. “In terms of what the world knows about Haiti, it’s something that’s really negative for the most part … The significance of the Haitian revolution is definitely underplayed.”
In Escarment’s view, the story and accomplishments of the Haitian revolution is something that can inspire not just Haitian-americans like himself, but also members of the U.S.’S broader African American population, especially in the context of Black History Month.
“They can learn about Haitian history, they can take from that fighting spirit, but also move beyond 1804,” he said. “Take that same spirit and use it to inspire change today.”