"We knew we would be left to die under the rubble"

After Syrians experienced the brutalities of war for more than a decade as the world stood by watching, earthquake survivors say they didn't expect help this time either

Eduardo Ramon

After Syrians experienced the brutalities of war for more than a decade as the world stood by watching, earthquake survivors say they didn't expect help this time either

"We knew we would be left to die under the rubble"

Khaled Khalifa

last update on 12 Mar 2023

"I've never seen such horror in my life," says a friend who recently returned to live in our city, Afrin.

This came from a man who lived under the relentless barrel bombs of the regime throughout the Syria war. This was a man who moved his family from one place to another, witnessing horrific scenes of buildings collapsing like pieces of biscuits and children’s body parts under the rubble.

Because I know what my friend went through, his statement immediately made me understand the scale and gravity of the earthquake.

My friend had moved from one place to another, one house to another, focusing on his work and the schooling of his three children, until he finally returned to our beautiful city — famous in Syria and across the world for its olive oil.

When we chatted, he would send me photos of olives, figs, and pomegranates, in an attempt to try and tempt me to return to the ‘pure springs’, as we call them — a place like nowhere else in the world.

Nostalgic, we recalled childhood memories, remembering places that ironically survived the war but were destroyed by the earthquake.

I envied him for living in such a paradise, even though it was occupied by factions hostile to it and its Kurdish culture, but we agreed that, like all invaders, they would soon leave one day.

The morning of the earthquake, I saw my friend covered in dirt, trying to help save lives under the rubble of houses in Jenderes. Along with civil defence workers, he laboured with his bare hands and giving heart, in the hopes that he could save anyone’s life.

Getty Images — An aerial view of collapsed buildings as search and rescue efforts continue in Jindires, located in Afrin of Aleppo, Syria after 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes hit multiple provinces of Turkiye and Syria on February 11, 2023

‘Death does not wait for rescue equipment’

"Death under the rubble," he tells me, "does not wait for the rescue teams with equipment to arrive. We must do something."

Since we were in college, my friend was always the first one to come to the rescue of those who needed help. His famous line was: “We have to do something!”

Jenderes was the most damaged city in Syria. Over half of the town's houses were destroyed, and the rest are unsafe. The dead were in the hundreds; the wounded were in the thousands. For survivors, the terror and fear that they experienced will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

I will inevitably die with those whose cries for help were not heard by the world, whose bodies were mixed with cement, iron, and earth.

In Jenderes, the dead were in the hundreds; the wounded were in the thousands. For survivors, the terror and fear that they experienced will stay with them for the rest of their lives. I will inevitably die with those whose cries for help were not heard by the world, whose bodies were mixed with cement, iron, and earth.

Corpses were everywhere. The corridors of hospitals were lined with amputated limbs and body parts waiting for their relatives to identify and bury them. This scene can only be described as an apocalypse, which I image is exactly what happened in Syria which experienced 12 years of war.

In a morbid sales pitch, Russia boasts that it tested 300 types of deadly weapons in Syria. These same weapons being used in Ukraine have turned into scrap and Moscow now has nothing left in its arsenal to threaten the world with except nuclear weapons. Russia should clarify that these weapons only aim to kill children and defenceless civilians.

AFP — In this aerial view, people living in tents following the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6, receive mattresses and other humanitarian aid distributed by an NGO, in the city of Afrin February 16, 2023.

'We expect nothing from the world'

No one was able to stop the death that Syrians witnessed over the past decade — as if it was Syrians' destiny to be abandoned by the world. But, at the very least, we wanted sympathy!

However, in the first moments of the earthquake, Syria — divided as it is between all political parties — was briefly united by its people who, not expecting anything from the world, rushed to unify their country without paying attention to the politics that, we knew, would also make us pay a heavy price.

We knew we would be left again under the rubble until an agreement is reached by the parties that control the crossings, monopolise the flow of aid, and turn it into a political game.

It doesn't matter how many people could have been saved had these parties allowed the rescue teams to reach Idlib, Afrin and the other affected areas in northwest Syria. The affected areas under the regime's controlled had slightly better help — but not by much.

Yes, 200 planes carrying humanitarian aid landed in Syrian airports, but the affected people received only 10 per cent of this aid — the rest evaporated, as usual, into the vast sky of corruption.

REUTERS — Syrians who lived in Turkey, gather with belongings after they crossed into Syria at the border crossing of Bab al-Hamam in rebel-held town of Afrin, Syria February 17, 2023.

The regime will certainly take advantage of this catastrophe. Erdogan will do the same in the Turkish elections. He will prevent the passage of rescue teams to the north and allow the corpses of Syrians who died under the rubble of their homes in the 10 earthquake-affected Turkish cities to cross back home. The conflicting armed factions in the north that rule the same way as the regime will also exploit the tragedy.

Until the sixth day of the earthquake, the northern crossings were opened only to bring in the bodies of the dead Syrians, killed under the rubble in Turkey. More than a thousand bodies were brought in within two weeks, other than those buried there and in Turkish cemeteries. There are still more Syrians under the rubble in Turkey and Syria.

On the sixth day, the talks between all the parties in Syria began to bear fruit. The crossings started to slowly open, but the dead did not wait; rather, they died again. Those who were waiting to be rescued died for the first time and began to decay under the rubble.

On the sixth day, the talks between all the parties in Syria began to bear fruit. The crossings started to slowly open, but the dead did not wait; rather, they died again. Those who were waiting to be rescued died for the first time and began to decay under the rubble.

The White Helmets (civil defence team) performed the only possible act of heroism in such circumstances — with their hands. With primitive equipment, they saved those who could be saved.

In Syrian cities such as Latakia and Aleppo, young men and women worked day and night to deliver donations given by poor Syrians who shared mattresses, blankets, clothes, food, and medicine with their compatriots.

During the past two weeks, Syrians shared everything, and the country — which the world believed being divided and occupied by Russia, Iran, Russia, Israel, America, and Turkey in the past decade is a natural thing — a was reunited.

Apologies cannot bring back the dead

The United Nations has admitted negligence and incompetence, but what good is this apology to the dead?

The death toll will reach an unbelievable number after the official count is recorded and the book is closed. After a few days it will be viewed as something normal. Nothing new to report. The world will say they died of panic and did not hold out under the rubble long enough for our trained police dogs to reach them.

AFP — A UN team convoy which crossed from Turkey into rebel-held northern Syria drives through Afrin on February 15, 2023 where they held meetings to discuss the crisis and needs of the victims on the ground.

What remains of Antakya is rubble and shattered hearts. What remains of Maraşlı, of Arsuz, of the rest of the destroyed Turkish places are just images and memories that rose with the dead as they ascended to heaven.

You cannot help but feel that the unequal fate of death is always unfair. My Turkish friends are in absolute shock. Yet, while the world's sympathy will undoubtedly mend their broken hearts, nothing will be able to bring their loved ones back.

In Syria, after a second earthquake hit two weeks ago, terrified Syrians poured out into streets in a scene similar to what is described in the Holy Books as the Day of Resurrection where humans carry their sins and good deeds on their shoulders, crossing the isthmus between heaven and hell.

An entire nation is left alone to face its fate while politicians loot their aid — even their burial shrouds.

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