“I have never seen my people so angry.”
Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk (71), winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, criticized the government for its poor response while reporting on the dire local situation after the earthquake on the 6th.
On the 11th (local time), Pamuk wrote an article for the New York Times (NYT), titled ‘Girl under collapsed concrete. In an article titled ‘A man who doesn’t know what to do’, he pointed out that “relief activities started two days after (after the disaster), but it was too insignificant and too late for the victims.”
Pamuk said, “Trucks loaded with relief supplies have been stopped for hours on a road hundreds of miles away from the affected area. Citizens, realizing that no action is being taken, protested by blocking the roads of government vehicles, police and government officials.” pointed out. He then criticized the government’s procrastination, saying, “People started to get used to fear, but the anger and despair did not go away.”
“With roads closed, power outages and telecommunications networks down, cell phones don’t work, so you don’t even know what’s going on in small provincial towns,” he said. “No action has been taken against people who have lost their homes, families and loved ones, and against the fires that have occurred in the aftermath of the earthquake,” he continued.
He described the situation that occurred as the earthquake occurred one after another as “apocalyptic frenzy.” “People roamed the streets asking for help, looking for food, and digging with their bare hands through the rubble of a 16-story ruined building,” he said. He continued, “The photos posted on social network services (SNS) by many people are surprising and shocking, conveying the scale of the disaster and the despair of being horribly abandoned.” Regarding the damage posted on social media, he said, “It seems that people are shouting, ‘Where are the government and rescue teams?'”
The title of the article is a scene from a video posted on social media. In the video, the girl is crushed by a pile of concrete buildings, screaming for help, saying “her brother is here too”. When the man who took the video said, “I will definitely come to rescue her,” she tried to leave, but the girl begged, “Don’t go.” Pamuk said that he waited for the video of this girl being rescued, but she never came up.
He recalled the 1999 Turkiye Marmara earthquake that killed 17,000 people. He said, “The frustration and sadness at the time remained for a long time. Now, such afterimages are being replaced by new and familiar horrors. The feeling of powerlessness overwhelms me,” he lamented.
Source: Donga