‘The first quake shook everything and the second one swept the city’

A TURKISH native warned the impact of the recent earthquakes is more horrifying than media can ever depict as he battles to support family members from his home in Longwood.

Selim Sahin's family in his hometown of Malatya have been left homeless after thousands were killed, and even more were injured in southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake last month.

The dad of two who said he “woke up to a nightmare” on February 6th says he is relieved his family are safe but fears for their future.

While some have fled to stay with family members in other regions, others are sleeping in cars and tents on cold snowy roads with no idea if or when they can return home or if there is anything to return to.

The death toll from the massive earthquake continues to rise as more bodies are retrieved from the rubble of demolished buildings.

The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria now stands at nearly 50,000.

"As a native of this region, it breaks my heart to see the destruction and hear the stories of those who have lost their homes, loved ones, and possessions," said Selim.

"My family are living very close to the centre of the earthquake. You can only imagine how bad things are after two earthquakes in a row, that has never happened as far as I know. My parents are from there, 95% of my family are living there.

"It looks like something from the movie Terminator, it is flattened. Turkey took bigger damage than Ukraine did in a war over a year.

"The second earthquake did most of the damage, the first one shook everything and the second one kind of swept the city.

"They are assessing the buildings, some of them have critical damage. My nana's house is going to be knocked down because it is too unsafe.

"They don't know what's going to happen or even if they will be able to go back and take their belongings.

"My youngest aunty is sleeping in a tent with four kids. A lot of people were taken by the cold too, no food, no heat , aid couldn't get to them quickly enough because it is such a vast area. What do you do when ten cities have been impacted?"

Selim grew up in Istanbul in north western Turkey but spent much time in his parent's native Malatya growing up. He says he is "devastated" that a place so close to his heart has been ravaged.

"I spent many summers in Malatya , I have so many fond memories of my childhood there," he says. "Some of those places have been completely destroyed and the cousins that we used to play with are homeless, so it quite upsetting.

"13.5m have been impacted, over 1m are homeless, tens of thousands have lost their lives, it is hard to comprehend.

"I'm constantly on Twitter watching the footage and bursting into tears watching babies being taken from the rubble and little kids with no families."

Selim's mother had been staying with her other son in Istanbul and was due to fly back to the region on the day the second earthquake hit according to the Turkish native.

"She went to Istanbul to spend some time with my brother and see my nephew just before Christmas," he recalls. "She had a ticket to go back to Malatya the same day the second earthquake happened, she still wanted to get back but they were only allowing flights to bring the aid in.

"We managed to get my dad, a bus ticket three days later to join her in Istanbul, it is a 17/18 hour journey but we got him out of the city to a safer place."

The Longwood resident who works for a Multi National company- says the already struggling economy in Turkey will make it all the more challenging for people there to rebuild their lives in the months and years to come.

"The economy wasn't great anyway," he explains: "When I moved to Ireland 13 years ago, one euro was two Turkish Lira, now it's almost 20.

"They are trying to stay hopeful in a hopeless situation. It will be a year on pause here for everybody, everyone will just have to try to survive.

"It will cost around 20k to for them to rebuild their home and replace the contents, like appliances and electronics. It's money the family don't have.

"If the council say they need to knock the building down because it is not safe, 70 or 80 percent of my family wouldn't be able to rebuild and replace their belongings. €500 here is like €10,000 in Turkey. €10,000 is like two minimum wages so for you to be able to save that it would take forever."

Selim has started a GoFundMe campaign to collect donations for the earthquake relief efforts in Turkey. He hopes to raise funds to provide essential aid and resources, such as food, shelter, medical care, and rebuilding materials, to those in need. To donate click here