An earthquake shatters the rebuilt lives of Syrian refugees in Turkey

First, the Syrian Civil War prompted Hind Qaydoha to leave her home in the city of Aleppo. Then conflict and unemployment forced her family to flee twice more. Two years ago, she came to southern Turkey, believing she had finally found safety and stability.

But when a strong earthquake struck a week ago, destroying their apartment in the hard-hit Turkish city of Antakya, the family was once again homeless. They sought safety nearby, warmed up on the side of a mountain around a medieval monastery and were exposed to a cold rain; Like many other survivors, they were annoyed at being kept under any roof.

Two days later, they are living on the floor of an unfinished car wash in Antakya.

“This is my room for me, my husband, and three children,” Ms. Kaidoha laughs, marking a small circle with her hands on the black-and-white plaid blanket, a skimpy cushion on the pebbled floor. She pointed to another part of the same blanket: “And there is my mother’s room.”

She said other relatives who lived near her were still buried under the rubble of their homes.

For Syrians and refugees like Ms. Qidoha and those still living back home, last Monday’s earthquake was a catastrophe within a catastrophe. For the past 12 years, their lives have been uprooted by civil war and the mass displacement and death it has caused. Syrians know all too well the loss of homes – walls fell in mere seconds, people trapped under rubble for days. But the refugees who fled to Turkey believed they had left those traumas behind.

Now, last week, some said the total devastation wrought by the earthquake was far worse than anything they had seen in more than a decade of war.

The civil war has displaced more than half of Syria’s 21 million people, and nearly four million of them have ended up as refugees in Turkey. Many lived in a swath of land badly damaged by the earthquake that killed more than 29,000 people in southern Turkey and more than 3,500 across the border in northwest Syria – a toll that continues to rise.

Initially, Syrian refugees were largely welcomed in Turkey. Syrians had relatively decent opportunities to earn new lives and new livelihoods.

Deadly earthquake in Turkey and Syria An earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale on February 6, with its epicenter in Gaziantep, Turkey, has become one of the deadliest natural disasters of this century.

But over time, they have faced increasing discrimination and pressure to return home, especially in recent years as the Turkish economy has been in a sharp downturn. The massive humanitarian crisis caused by the earthquake has reignited and exacerbated long-standing tensions.

“Now we are under the threat of the Turks, who may expel us from the country,” said Ms. Qaiduha, 37.

The Turkish residents of Antakya made unfounded accusations against the Syrians of looting bodies or removing jewelry from them.

Standing on the banks of the Orontes River in Antakya on Thursday, Tulin Koziri, a 62-year-old Turkish woman, watched as researchers removed a body from an apartment building. Close to her was the body of someone she knew, wrapped in a pink blanket — one of many relatives and friends she said were lost in the quake, along with her family’s cotton mill and home.

“I don’t want Syrian immigrants in Antakya anymore,” she said, barely able to control herself. “Instead of paying the Syrian people our taxes, we want them to take care of the Turks.”

However, the relationship between Turks and Syrian refugees is far more complex than fear, blame and resentment. In Antakya and other affected areas, some Syrian families said Turkish families shared any shelter and food with them.

Other Syrian refugees said that government-run rescue and relief operations did not discriminate among those in need.

“Thank God, Turkey does not separate us,” said Jamal Izzaldin, a 30-year-old Syrian, as he held his two-year-old daughter Fatima. “Even if there is some racism from people.”

On Thursday, in a tented camp set up around the football field in Antakya, he watched a Turkish woman harass a Turkish army officer, insisting that aid should only go to Turks, not Syrians. The officer told her that they would not discriminate.

Ms. Qidoha said she has family in Syria, including two sisters in northwestern Idlib province and an aunt in Aleppo – two of the areas hardest hit by the earthquake. But she was not able to communicate with them. It is a constant reminder that Syrians on both sides of the border are united in suffering.

She said this was the second time she had lost her home and all her possessions.

“I have nothing but these children, thank God,” she said in a hoarse voice, hoarse from the cold, as she stretched out her arms towards her 9-year-old daughter.

She and her family were desperate to leave the car wash, which had a large opening that let in the bitter cold air. They want to find better shelter in the tent camps set up by the Turkish government.

But they were dismayed by rumors that they would not be allowed in because they were Syrians, or that roving groups of armed Turks were looking for Syrians to attack.

And it wasn’t just the prospect of rising anti-Syrian sentiment or fear of attacks that prompted some Syrians to leave Turkey: they feared another earthquake or natural disaster.

At night at the car wash, the parents sheltering there put their children to bed in clothes and shoes, in case other minions should force them to run.

It turns out that all of this was too much for Mrs. Qaydoha and her extended family. They used some of their leftover money and paid drivers to take them farther west, outside the quake zone.

Dalal Al-Masri, the mother of Mrs. Qiduha, 55, said: “When we were living in war, we would flee to another area and feel safer. But here, we don’t feel there is any safe place to go.”

Outside a collapsed apartment building in Antakya, a woman in her 50s who said she came from northwest Syria to Turkey just days before the earthquake struck has held a hopeful vigil for days. She did not wish to reveal her name for her own safety.

The building was where her daughter, who is nine months pregnant, lived with her family. The mother had come to Turkey to give birth.

“Can a mother leave her daughter’s side?” Friday said, wiping away the tears. She closed her eyes, seemingly ready to stop. “Everyone here is waiting for someone below them.”

Wrapped in a navy scarf, she watched the handful of lifeguards who walked along the upturned edges of the building’s balconies, peering occasionally into the depths of the battered building and listening closely for any response, however faint.

When asked if any sounds had been heard yet, she started crying again.

“It’s been 100 hours.”

Nearby, a playground was strewn with sheets and blankets, turned into a resting area for rescue workers. Thin foam mattress stretched across the yellow slide, makeshift bed.

On Saturday, the mother finally received the grim news. Rescuers found the body of her daughter and her 3-year-old son in the middle of the night. They buried them next to each other.

The mother said she came to Turkey expecting to welcome another grandchild. Instead, she will return to Syria after burying her daughter, who was her best friend.

Vivian Yee contributed reporting.

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