QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Aitan holds back her tears as she picks up her clothes, fearing another earthquake. She recalls the moment she left her house in the city of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) owing to the intense shelling carried out by the Turkish forces and the opposition factions against the city. In 2019, Aitan could take nothing with her.
Aitan Malla Darwish, 45, an IDP from the city of Sere Kaniye has five children and lives on the second floor of a five-story building in the city of Qamishli, northeast Syria.
Following the Turkish invasion, “We were displaced. We stayed in Hasakah for a month. Afterwards we moved to the city of Qamishli,” she told North Press.
Today vs yesterday
Malla Darwish was a witness to the earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey on February 6. She thought the building was collapsing. Death was imminent. Memories of past events flashed before her eyes.
“I recalled back past memories, going back to childhood. I felt nothing. I remembered how we lived in Sere Kaniye, how we were displaced. I thought about the fact that, had I been in my city, I wouldn’t have had that kind of feeling,” she said.
She says that when the quake occurred she did not fear death. “I wished to die to terminate this agony and this harsh life and all that surrounds us. Nothing could compensate for losing our house in Sere Kaniye.”
Among many others, Darwish left the house and headed to the ‘Ornina’ Roundabout, where she received a call from her husband, who had errands in Tel Tamr, near Hasakah, and wanted to make sure his family was safe.
Hours later, Darwish returned home. But fearing aftershocks, she packed up clothes, food, and blankets.
As she did, the moments before leaving Sere Kaniye came back to her. “At the time, I was wondering what I could take with me from a 33 square meter house which we had made our home,” she added.
Darwish compares the quake to the war she was a witness of. “The earthquake lasted a few seconds. The tremors that hit Sere Kaniye are much more difficult. The shelling and the fear are horrific. Leaving your city unwillingly is indescribable.”
Shock
Jihan did not wake up her daughters, fearing that they could be traumatized. She has already lost a daughter, who had been shocked during the Turkish invasion of Afrin. She was diagnosed with kidney failure, for which she has been undergoing treatment. She died six months ago.
When the quake hit, Jihan Henan Hussein, 50, an IDP from Afrin who has been living in the Qudur Bek neighborhood of Qamishli, told her husband not to wake her daughters up.
However, the daughters felt the quake. They left the four-story building. In doing so, the family began to recall the moment they left Afrin as Turkey invaded the region in 2018. The scenario felt similar but the situation is different.
Hussein describes her condition during the first moments of the quake. “For a few moments, I felt like I was back in Afrin. We walked to Ahlam Mountain with only a bag of clothes.”
Hussein has been working at the Afrin Social Society, a body responsible for Afrin IDPs living in Jazira Region (Hasakah Governorate). “We had to save ourselves when the quake hit,” she noted.