It's Funny, That Fish In The Water Tries To Swim

The earthquake of magnitude 7.2 which happened on Sunday, the 23rd of October in the very east turkey close to the Turkish city Van in the afternoon was a devastating blast for the whole region.

With an estimated number of 1000 deaths and 85 confirmed deaths, the city is dramatically destroyed. As it was a Sunday and many people of Van were inside their homes during the earthquake to have lunch with their families.
With Van being one of the poorest of the poor big cities in the Kurdistan region in East Turkey, it makes the brutal catastrophe which is the worst earthquake since 1999 even worse. 

Having lived in Van for a total of 6 days and having travelled in the Kurdistan region for 13 days, I was able to listen and to see the region’s problems. My hitchhiking trips which led me once from Trabzon to Erzurum, Agri and Van and once from Adana to Urfa, Diyarbakir, Tatvan and Van enabled me to encounter many different people in the Kurdistan region and to feel the daily struggle of the Kurds. The ongoing war between the Turkish government and the PKK which now lasts over 30 years  have created an equation between rich and poor, between educated and uneducated from the west to the east which doesn’t exist like that in any country.

During my time in Van I have been hosted by two different hosts.

One of them is Necip, a 45 year old Kurd who became an animal vet and who is also active in a Kurdish human rights organization. I got to know him over Couchsurfing and together with his friend he showed me the major parts of the city and he prepared a splendid breakfast for me each morning. He is divorced from his former wife and has an 8-year old daughter who also lives in Van at his mother’s place. He was the first person in Van with whom I could have a proper conversation in English and spending three days with him meant also getting to know the opinion of an educated Kurd who has always lived in Van and who has experienced the most horrible period of the War against PKK in 1992.

My second hosts have been two women called Ruhan from Trabzon and Marve from Ankara who worked as teacher in Van schools. I got to know them in a shop while asking for the way. Marve teaches in an elementary school and Ruhan teaches in a high school. Both of them talked a very good English and both of them were of Turkish origin. They didn’t choose Van as a city to live, instead they were sent there by the the government to teach at least one year abroad. Together with them we met one of her students in a shop. Ruhan turned to me and said “this is one of my students. I can’t really recall his name, but he is a very good one.” I thought for a second and surprisingly replied “what? He is your student and you don’t know his name?”
“I am sorry, but in one class there are 45 children and I have 11 classes a week and even that changes each month”. Wow, I thought to myself. That means she sees an approximate amount of 400 children each week. There are some families (not all of them[!]) who have 15 children and some of those children don’t even go to school. Walking through the streets made me realize that there are many, many children in the streets of Van. On 6 adults comes one child between 4 and 10 years old. Some of them go around and try to sell tissues or sell cheap cigarettes from Iran in order to earn some few Liras. Some of them just walk through the streets and some of them help their parents with works. Some of the children were forced to come to the bigger cities from the villages because they have been destroyed by the Turkish military. With Marve being an elementary school teacher she told me about the neediness of some of the children. Teachers often serve as a substitute parent as they hug and cling to them during school and when they meet them in the city.

The problem is already getting worse and worse over the years even without the earthquake. Losing home and family is the worst thing that I can imagine could happen to a region which is so troubled with the living conditions which have been already concerning bad.

Turkey serves as a gate between Europe and the middle East. Western cities like Istanbul stand in a stark contrast between the struggles in the East. With the government enjoying a rapid economical growth which has been mainly due to the western cities Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya, Ankara and Adana, Turkey is pushing towards a big major power in the region between Europe and the middle East. When you go to the west of Turkey as a European, the west seems secular and liberal, even western. Ongoing debates and enthusiasm about joining the EU and making new profits shows the West-Turkish’ aspirations and dreams to strive for wealth and modernity. The east of Turkey however remains poor, religiously conservative and stuck in between a war of the PKK and the government. The problems of the people in the East are in their head everyday, it was in my head everyday. As you walk through the cities which have at least two army stations with wired fences and guarding military along the way, it is hard not to see the brittle and harsh reality of the East. However having lived in west Turkey I was able to enjoy nice parties in the cosmopolitanism of Istanbul, sunny beaches in the beautiful area of Antalya and a paradise resort called Kabak Valley in the south west close to Fethiye. The problems of Turkey in these nice places have not been in my head at all, they were out of my sight and thus out of my mind. Travelling towards Van from Adana however put them in my ind again and made me reconsider wether or not Turkey should join the EU.

I contacted Necip and I was relieved and shocked to get this reply: “We are all fine, but Van is destroyed. I‘m so sorry. We live out and the weather is cold…” I still didn’t hear from Ruhan and Marve. I really hope they are fine.

My deepest condolences to all the families of the wounded and the dead.
I am so sorry.