In her weekly article Gülseren Onanç, the Founding Chair of the SES Equality and Solidarity Association, focuses on the dynamics of polarisation and argues that we need solidarity more than ever.
Gülseren Onanç
Aleyna Ölmez, who survived under the wreckage for 248 hours, really put up a struggle worthy of her surname (which in Turkish can mean immortal or lives on). Aleyna’s resistance to death and struggle to survive gave us the hope we sought. But one still feels the pain of the tens of thousands who succumbed to death in the recent earthquakes that shook Turkey and Syria.
We have experienced two disasters of the century in the last three years. First a pandemic, now a major earthquake disaster. Death stalks us. According to state figures, 101 thousand people have died due to Covid-19 since March 2020. The number of people who died in the biggest earthquake disaster of the century that hit ten of our cities is also increasing rapidly. According to the latest statement made by AFAD, the death toll has passed 41,000, and there are tens of thousands of dead bodies under the rubble. We still do not know the real numbers.
We all experience trauma to varying degrees.
The pain of those who lost their loved ones in the earthquake is great. They lost their loved ones, their homes, their cities. The trauma experienced by thirteen million people living in ten provinces affected by the earthquake is enormous. All of us who watch this destruction from afar or close helplessly and are working to provide assistance are traumatized in different dimensions. The pressure of the authoritarian government that has threatened our individual rights and freedoms for the last ten years is on us. It has followed us during the pandemic, the economic crisis, the Ukraine-Russia war in our region, the climate crisis the mass fires and floods. When all this comes together, it is clear that we all experience trauma in various dimensions. When we add the expectation that the Great Marmara earthquake will affect Istanbul in the near future, we experience intense emotions such as fear, anxiety and helplessness.
We don’t feel safe
Clinical Psychologist Cafer Çataloluk said, “This is a heavy social trauma. What traumatizes us is primarily what people experience there. Because I know that another person is cold, cannot eat, which makes us think I have no right to do so too. These are the first things that traumatized me. The Istanbul earthquake has been expected for 24 years. When we look at what has been done, we unfortunately see a lot of it is lacking. All this takes away the hope we can hold onto, we don’t feel safe,” Çataloluk says.
We will heal by sharing
In the briefing for the public after the earthquake, the Turkish Psychological Association stated:
“Do not hesitate to talk about your experience with a relative who can listen to you. Maintain positive and supportive relationships with friends, family, neighbors. Social support has a healing effect on people’s psychological post-traumatic effects. Do not try to suppress your feelings or sadness. Share your feelings and thoughts about this event with those around you who can listen to you.”
The trust in the state decreased, yet we could not establish social trust.
The polarization in our country is an obstacle to our recovery from the trauma we experienced. While the government is creating enemies from the opposition, individuals and organizations that want to support the process outside itself, it prevents hope for the future to flourish. With the opposition’s reaction to these actions, trust in the political establishment and politicians is gradually decreasing. This loss of confidence reduces hope for the future and hinders our recovery.
As a matter of fact, the singer Yıldız Tilbe expresses her distrust towards politicians in her will shared on social media today: “When I die, I don’t want a politician to come to my funeral. When you come to my funeral, put stones the size of a coin in your pocket, if a politician comes, stone them, if they don’t, I’ll get up, God willing, maybe I’ll take some of them, I don’t want any of them.”
It seems that we will come out of this trauma ourselves. We will reduce our expectations of politics and the state it rules and heal ourselves.
We will heal by sharing and embracing.