Global Courant 2023-05-18 21:16:52
UNITED NATIONS
A young earthquake survivor from Turkey shared his first-hand experience of two devastating earthquakes with the international community in his speech to the UN General Assembly on 6 February, emphasizing the importance of disaster preparedness.
Mustafa Kemal Kılınç, 23, is a university student living in Hatay, one of the cities most affected by the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes in Turkey.
On Thursday, Kılınç attended a high-level meeting at the UN headquarters of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a key international agreement adopted in 2015.
Kilinc, who was visiting his family, awoke suddenly from his deep sleep with a violent jolt.
“My bed was shaking so much. The floor was shaking so hard when I tried to get up that I thought it was going to swallow me up,” she said. “There was destruction all around us…it was a horrible experience”.
“As the sun came up, we saw more clearly the extent of the destruction around us. Countless buildings were in ruins and people were homeless on the streets. Not only my hometown Hatay, but also 10 other provinces of Turkey were directly hit by earthquakes,” he recalled.
“Imagine that one in five buildings in Manhattan is completely destroyed. Some of my childhood places no longer exist. I’m here today because our building didn’t collapse.”
Kilinc and his family, who were between the joy of good news and the sadness of bad news for days, experienced deep emotions after the deadly earthquakes.
Thanking the foreign search and rescue teams for their support to the Turkish people, Kılınç called on the international community to be prepared for natural disasters.
“We can’t predict natural disasters, but we can certainly be prepared whenever and wherever they happen. That’s why I told you my story. So you understand what a disaster victim feels and experiences,” he said.
“I hope that as a result of the work you do here, there will be fewer victims of disasters like me around the world.”
More than 50,000 people lost their lives in the severe earthquakes that hit southern Turkey on February 6.
The 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş affected more than 13 million people in 11 provinces, including Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Elazığ and Şanlıurfa.
Many countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the severe shock that hit Turkey in less than 10 hours.
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