The earthquake in northern Syria and Turkey and tünews INTERNATIONAL

By Wolfgang Sannwald
The earthquake in northern Syria and Turkey has hit relatives of tünews INTERNATIONAL employees hard: In the family of a relative many have died, of the members of a family friend only one small child is still alive. At tünews INTERNATIONAL, we are increasingly experiencing how media reports about seemingly distant places bring us closer. This is evident in our editorial meetings, where people are together who come from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Afghanistan or Ukraine. Some of us have been meeting for two hours a week for seven years. For many of them, the connections to their former homeland are still alive and when someone tells us about the suffering there, it stirs up everyone in our editorial office in Tübingen. It is no longer about abstract numbers of victims, but about relatives, friends and acquaintances of our colleagues. Their stories bring death, injuries and losses into our lives. Migration and integration thus allow empathy with people in faraway places to grow.
This week’s editorial meeting focused on the earthquake disaster in northern Syria and Turkey. Editorial board members reported on their telephone calls and internet contacts with people living there. Many people from Syria have fled to the current earthquake area on the border between Syria and Turkey in previous years. They live crowded together in towns and refugee camps. The knowledge of relatives, but also of the fate and hardship of those living there is deeply touching: “I am not well. I can’t imagine how the people there feel now. I think it is much, much worse in Syria than reported. And there is much less aid and relief.” Or: “It is very sad that the north has been hit. That’s outside the regime, help will be difficult.”
Migration and integration, however, also sharpen people’s awareness of what is happening in the earthquake zone. Videos and photos of destroyed houses and streets, injured people and survivors’ accounts of their experiences reach our editorial office via social media: “There are many videos with terrible pictures of children and people who are trapped.” We learn of disaster areas that lie in the shadow of media reports and in the shadow of relief efforts by the Syrian state. There, many people still remained on the streets or in their cars because they are afraid of further earthquakes. In the first hours after the earthquake, most people relied on each other for help. We hear about the search for buried people with bare hands. And we hear above all the question of what the next days will bring. It is winter in the earthquake area right now, it is very cold. Will food, tents, blankets arrive? Which roads and border crossings are even open? We hear about the fear that humanitarian aid could be withheld for political reasons. And of demands on Turkey to quickly open borders for aid deliveries to northern Syria.
A question that comes up again and again: How can we personally help the people in the earthquake zone? Members of the editorial team are providing aid themselves, transferring money mainly through direct private channels. Generally speaking, only donations to recognised relief organisations can be recommended at the moment.

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Erdbebengebiet in Nordsyrien. Foto: tünews INTERNATIONAL / Abdullah Kanjo.
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