The joint death toll rose to more than 2,600 in the strongest earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria on Monday in nearly a century. In Belgium, the Turkish community follows this news with anguish. Some families are without news of their loved ones and for others, the worst has unfortunately been confirmed. Testimonies collected by our journalists Arnaud Gabriel and Elisabeth Wouters.
Aysel has been following the news since early this morning on her computer. She knows the area affected by the earthquake very well. Much of his family lives there. His village is completely destroyed.
“I open the pc, and I see all these images. I try to call the whole family, but no network, whether it’s internet or normal calls. So we’re waiting. It’s been very complicated to get someone on the phone, and then the bad news fell little by little”, she confides.
In a photo she showed us, the building in which one of her cousins lives. There is only the upper floor, all the others have disappeared, buried. In another photo, a house, there is nothing left.
“Two cousins died under the rubble, as well as their husbands, their children”says Ayssel.
In a district located between Schaerbeek and Saint-Josse, the Turkish community is important. Jaïd is 26 years old and thinks this evening of the victims. “The balance sheet is increasing more and more and it is touching and painful”, he tells us.
A little further, in a hairdressing salon, Memeth only talks about this with his clients. The television on with the news on a loop. 3500 km from the horror, it is much more than a community that is affected tonight.
