Metro Vancouver Turks desperate to help after devastating earthquakes

Consul general hoping to send urban rescue specialists and search dogs from Vancouver

A Vancouver man whose wife’s family lives near the epicentre of the major earthquakes in Turkey says the neighbourhood was flattened and it’s a miracle most of them survived.

Emre Coban’s wife had just moved to Germany to await her travel visa to join Coban in Canada, he said.

Video he showed to Postmedia showed rubble where buildings used to stand in the Kahramanmaras, one of two ancient cities that had entire neighbourhoods destroyed, according to news reports.

His wife, Merve Ozgen, reached her father and brother, both of whom had been able to leave the house after the first earthquake in the middle of the night.

The major aftershock in the afternoon destroyed their house, said Coban.

“It was lucky that it happened in the day, at 2 p.m.,” he said. “Otherwise they would have been in the house.”

The neighbourhood was flattened and Ozgen’s father and brother have nowhere to go.

“His (her father’s) voice was really cracked and he had no clue what to do,” he said. “It’s hard to deliver them food and they have nowhere to go.”

Coban said his wife’s aunt was buried under the rubble and was successfully freed, but a cousin was still missing on Monday.

Consul General Mehmet Taylan Tokmak of the Turkish Consulate in Vancouver said 5,000 buildings were destroyed during the quakes in Turkey alone.

He is arranging for a team of 12 to 15 urban search and rescue experts along with five or six search dogs to fly to Turkey as early as Tuesday to help in the efforts to find and rescue buried survivors.

Tokmak said he has also asked the provincial government for humanitarian assistance and Turkish airlines has agreed to fly collected donations to Turkey free.

“They are helpless, they are in the worst situation,” said Hakki Cakal, owner of the Golden Horn Turkish bakery and café in Vancouver.

Turks have a saying that’s similar to say you’re heart is breaking, “we say my liver burns,” he said. “It means it is hard because you can’t do anything. But they will survive this.”

The people of Turkey and Syria need donations of tents, sleeping bags and water filters, said Demet Edeer, president of the Turkish-Canadian Society.

And Coban said the United Canadian Muslim Association has set up a GoFundMe page to help its parent organization in Turkey fund the rescue and humanitarian aid efforts.

Local Turks will be holding a prayer service at a Burnaby mosque for the victims and survivors of the earthquakes that caused widespread damage over 10 cities and killed several thousand people.

The local Turkish community, which numbers under 5,000, have set up a collection depot at 580 Industrial Ave. in Vancouver for warm clothing and shoes, according to Cansoy Gurocak. 

They hope to send a shipment by air every two days, he said.

Gurocak has family members in the towns of Islahiye and Pazarcik, near the city of Gaziantep, which he said was the centre of the quakes. Many of his family members lost their homes and it’s the winter season, when it’s cold enough to snow, adding more hardship.

“All the town (Islahiye) was destroyed,” he said. “So many people have nowhere to go.”

“We are calling on all individuals and organizations to come forward and offer their support,” he said, adding they accept donations, volunteering time “or any other means you can think of to help those affected.”

He said the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations are also accepting cash donations for work on the ground in Turkey.