Far from home, Turkish Iowans ‘feel helpless’

IOWA CITY — Even as the death toll rises, rescuers fight hypothermia, children find themselves orphaned and food stores wane in southern Turkey and northwest Syria, University of Iowa associate professor Emine Bayman wishes she were home.

“I do feel helpless, sad, sometimes angry,” said Bayman, who came to the UI from Turkey as an international graduate student in 2003 and in 2008 joined the faculty as an associate professor in biostatistics.

“Why is this happening? All the mixed feelings. And depressed, too. I've been so distracted since Sunday night when this happened. I've been checking my phone, reading the news, and not able to help.”

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake upended hundreds of thousands of lives in the dark of night there Monday, and the death toll by Saturday had surpassed 25,000 people.

Originally from Mersin — about 3.5 hours from the quake’s epicenter near Gaziantep — Bayman said her parents and brother’s family are safe. But that doesn’t mean they’re well — given the fear and trauma they’ve endured watching their countrymen and women suffer and wondering if they’ll be next.

“My brother lives in an apartment, my parents live in a house — so my brother and his family came and stayed with my parents for three nights or so, just in case something happens — it's much safer to be in a house,” she said. “They were very scared.”

Bayman learned of the earthquake before 8 p.m. Sunday — about 30 minutes after it occurred about 4 a.m. Monday local time in Turkey — via a WhatsApp message group of Turkish friends living in Iowa. Given the early hour there, Bayman said she didn’t immediately call her parents in case the quake hadn’t woke them. But she did reach out via WhatsApp to cousins in Turkey.

“And they were all up,” she said. “They were like, ‘It was too long. It was shaking.’ Even the kids, it was strong enough to wake them up from their sleep.”

Bayman said she decided to call her parents, “and they were up, too.”

The geological slip that caused the historic tremor lasted about 75 seconds, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, meaning many across the affected region could have felt it for up to two minutes.

“Normally earthquakes are like 10 to 15 seconds,” Bayman said.

Many, like her family, are navigating aftershock fears following the protracted quake.

“People living in apartments are either in their car or some other place — getting out of the houses because we know from previous earthquakes that it's so dangerous to be inside,” she said. “It’s a trauma that you don't want to live in again.”

Hundreds of thousands of survivors were left homeless in the dead of winter, with temperatures ranging from the 20s to mid-40s. Bayman said she was in Turkey in 1999 when a similar 7.6-magnitude quake shook the Kocaeli province and killed upward of 18,000 people — although she wasn’t near the epicenter.

Noting the rise of social media and global connectivity has been helpful this time around in alerting rescuers of trapped survivors and spreading the word of missing or found community members, Bayman said it also has amplified fears for those across the region or far from it, like her.

“Trying to maybe get some donations is all I can do from here,” she said.

‘Going to take months and years’

Bayman isn’t alone in her eagerness to help, with Iowa’s public universities reaching out to their dozens of international students and scholars from Turkey or Syria.

“Like many of you, we were shocked and saddened when we heard about the devastating earthquakes that hit parts of (Turkey) and Syria,” UI International Students & Scholars officials wrote in an email to those effected last week. “We want you to know that if any of you are struggling with your thoughts or emotions seeing the news from back home, you are always welcome to visit our office just to find someone to talk to.”

The UI has 29 students and six international scholars from Turkey, along with five students and one scholar from Syria, according to UI spokesman Steve Schmadeke. Iowa State University has 33 students from Turkey and two from Syria, according to fall 2022 enrollment numbers.

“ISU’s International Students and Scholars Office and the Dean of Students Office are providing outreach to students from these countries to make sure they have the support and resources they need,” according to ISU spokeswoman Angie Hunt.

Bayman worries the global relief efforts will fade long before needs abate for Turkey, and for war-torn Syria and its millions of refugees.

“This is not something that can be cleaned in days,” Bayman said. “… It's going to take months and years.”

Fatma Simsek-Duran, a UI clinical assistant psychiatry professor currently working with the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Health Care System, said she, too, worries about a mismatch between the ebb and flow of aid and the region’s evolving needs.

“Everyone wants to get involved,” she said, including those who live in Turkey but are outside the affected area — like members of her family. “Everyone wants to go to the region. … They really want to get a bus ticket or take their cars and drive there.”

But, Simsek-Duran said, Turkish leaders are urging “please don’t come, please don’t come” because so often the helpers need the same resources as the victims.

“Then you become a victim, too,” she said. “Because there is no water.”

‘Live your life in a meaningful way’

Simsek-Duran and her family moved to Iowa City in 2015 after a stint in Virginia — having spent most of her life in Ankara, Turkey, where her parents, brothers and extended family still live. Given the capital city is nearly eight hours northwest of the quake’s devastation, the impact on her family has been more political, systemic and empathic.

“Everybody’s really sad and angry — very, very angry with the government,” she said, pointing to accusations the government blocked social media and slowed internet accessibility for a time — potentially hampering rescue efforts.

“Probably they just tried to suppress their expression,” Simsek-Duran said. “They don't want all those angry outbursts coming to the media and coming to social media.”

Although none of Simsek-Duran’s immediate family members were directly impacted by the quake, she had a friend from medical school working as a general surgeon in his hometown in the heart of the disaster. Like so many at the time of impact, he likely was asleep.

“Apparently he was in his home,” she said. “And I heard that he was missing. And actually last night I heard that his body was found.”

Just a few months ago, that friend posted on Facebook a photo of himself looking out over a mountain range. With the picture, he wrote, “The value of life isn’t up to the length of days you lived, but up to the use of those days.”

“There are many people who lived long lives but not lived much,” he wrote. “Live your life in a meaningful way and be good since there will be no repeat. Welcome my new age.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com