First the people heard the voices of their relatives who were buried under the rubble.
Then the voices grew quieter.
Until they finally fell silent.
"That's something I'll probably never forget in my life," says Özlem Topçu, deputy head of the SPIEGEL foreign department, in the podcast.
“This statement from people saying the voices are getting quiet, meaning the cries for help coming out of the rubble.
In connection with questions, of course: there seems to be a coordinated problem with the help, obviously.
Why are so many buildings destroyed?
Why did they collapse?
«
A week after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, these questions are getting louder, shouted out by women and men who have lost loved ones.
And waited in vain for help.
Or still wait.
So why is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan talking about everything going well now?
And why can't he stop railing against his critics in this situation?
more on the subject
The earthquake in Turkey and the question of guilt: "Where is the government?" Şebnem Arsu and Maximilian Popp report from Hatay
Rescue work in northern Syria: »We are alone with the catastrophe« An interview by Monika Bolliger
Syria after the earthquake: why is the aid not arriving?By Monika Bolliger, Asia Haidar and Orwa Mokdad
“I think at a moment like this you really have to embrace a country that is so traumatized when you say you want to achieve unity or that now is not the time for political trench warfare,” says Özlem Topçu.
She is alluding to a speech by Erdoğan after the catastrophe.
“Towards the end of the same speech, I think he said something like: We observe very closely what is being said here in terms of critical things or what calculations are being made.
We remember that. One can ask the question: Is this the moment to say something like that?
I personally would say no.«
Why is the President acting like this?
What is the situation in the affected areas?
And what does this catastrophe mean for Turkey?
Özlem Topçu talks about this in this episode of the eight billion foreign podcast.
Listen to the current episode here: