Earthquake in southeast of Turkiye

FEBRUARY 6, 2023 EARTHQUAKE IN SOUTHEAST OF TURKEY

Geographically, Turkey is situated between Europe and Central Asia where many fault lines cross each other:

The Northern Anatolia Fault Line and the Southern Anatolia Fault Line. These fault lines have caused many

serious earthquakes of high magnitude for many centuries. Although this is a known fact by the people of the

past and present, many unsafe buildings: apartments, hospitals, goverment buildings, schools and universities

were constructed ignoring the reality of the situation.

The eartquake of February 6 (around 4 o’clock a.m), destroyed a very large area, 10 big cities, many towns and

villages. In fact there were two independent earthquakes of high magnitude. Since the fault lines were very

close to the ground the damage was greater.The number of casualties, officially announced are increasing each

day . Considering the number of buildings completely destroyed, the number of casualties is expected to reach

80.000 or more.

Can earthquakes be predicted? Most probably not. Could precations be taken? Most certainly yes. This

eartquake destroyed 10 big cities, airports, hospitals, factories, business centers and last but not least schools.

Help, support and rescue teams have been coming from all over the world since the first day of the disaster,

however, the catastrophe is so big that it seems as if nothing is quite enough. We are grateful to each and

every one of the people who are out there helping or sending support to that area. More support is always

welcome.

Education has been interruped in Turkey. Some school buildings no longer exist in effected regions. A high

number of students lost either their own lives or lost their parents and relatives. All over Turkey many

organizations, NGO’s, schools and universities in other parts of Turkey are supporting the victims of the disaster

by sending them medicine, warm clothes, food, tents, portable toilets etc. (it is below 0 degrees C. In those

cities). Homeless people, very great in number are transported to other cities and towns. They have nothing,

not even their identity cards. We are trying not to lose hope as the citizens of this country knowing that the

social, economic and psychological aftermaths of this tragedy will have great impact.

With these consequences in mind and as an organization working with schools, educators and students, we as

Mind Academy and PTC Turkey are planning training sessions and activities to raise the consciousness level of

the students, educators, parents and younger children in terms of dealing with this trauma and how to build

resilience . With the younger children we are planning to use game based learning methodologies to make

them understand what they should do in times of stress and how they should express themselves. We are also

planning to give them psychological support by our proffessional team members who are experts in their fields.

With educators and older students we also want to present training activities about self and community

responsibilities. We also want to support school leaders in giving them resources and suggestions on ways to

help themselves, their teaching team and students in terms of wellbeing and dealing with trauma. We would

appreciate it if the international school educators could share any suggestions, resources or programs related

to these issues. Turkey has a lot of experts working in the previously mentioned areas, however, we are aware

of the fact that learning should never stop and there is aways more to share. Our greatest wish is to see that

schools become physically, socially and emotionally safe environments as soon as possible once again where

students are ready to learn and teachers are ready to guide them to become life long learners. We are open to

all suggestions, best practice ideas and resources.

PTC Turkey Directors

Melike Ateş Arzu Özçetin