AFAD prevents people from carrying out rescue work in many places

HDP Van MP Muazzez Orhan said that many people lost their lives because there was no timely intervention, and because AFAD prevented others from working.

It has been a week since the earthquakes that occurred in Maraş and affected 10 provinces. The death toll is approaching 30,000, while rescue efforts are still continuing. HDP Van MP Muazzez Orhan has been in Antep (Dilok) almost from the first day of the earthquake. She told ANF that "when I arrived here the morning after the earthquake, 24 hours had passed and there were only two rescue teams, probably firefighters. People were in a really difficult situation. There are many injured, dead and people still under the rubble. The last time we wanted to go to the hospital was three days ago and visit the injured. But we could not see any hospital officials. But the prosecutors there said they were taking care of the dead.”

Orhan said that not the earthquake but the lack of coordination cost people's lives. "The number of dead reached 30,000, and this is actually due to not being able to intervene in time, and not being coordinated, rather than to the earthquake. The institutions were unprepared and the coordination was very bad. There was serious chaos.”

Underlining that AFAD does not allow others to work, Orhan said: “I also went to Nurdağı, Hassa and Kırıkhan in Hatay. I talked to the crisis desk officer in Kırıkhan and he said that they could not intervene properly in the first two days due to incompetence. When we went there, there was a crane company called Özaras-Grup from Van for the first two days and it had pulled 28 people out of the rubble in the first two days.”