Antakya: When war broke out in Ukraine, Aydin Sisman’s relatives there fled to the ancient city of Antakya, in a southeastern corner of Turkiye that borders Syria.
They may have escaped one disaster, but another found them in their new home.
They were staying with Sisman’s Ukrainian mother-in-law when their building collapsed last Monday as a 7.8 magnitude earthquake levelled much of Antakya and ravaged the region in what some in Turkiye are calling the disaster of the century.
“We have Ukrainian guests who fled the war, and they are also lying inside. We have had no contact,” said Sisman, whose Turkish father-in-law also was trapped under the rubble of the 10-year-old apartment building.
As rescuers dig through heaps of rubble, Sisman appeared to have lost hope.
Millions of refugees, like Sisman’s relatives, have found a haven in Turkiye, escaping from wars and local conflicts from countries as close as Syria to as far afield as Afghanistan.
There are at least 3.6 million Syrians who have fled their homeland’s war since 2011, arriving in trickles or en masse, sometimes overrunning the border, to seek safety from punishing bombardments, chemical attacks and starvation.