Marauders in Turkey – forced and "at the call of the heart"

Any natural disaster or military action, as a rule, is accompanied by looting. This is also the case in Turkey, affected by destructive earthquakes.

While alone furiously sorting out the rubble, cherishing every minute and every life, others are in a hurry to take advantage of the situation for personal gain. In fairness, it is worth noting that some are simply forced to do this – they have lost everything in their ruined housing, and humanitarian aid doesn’t come as fast as I would like.

Families go “on business”, visiting empty houses and shops. And if some take the necessary clothes and food, then others do not stand on ceremony – they take out expensive equipment and even … furniture.

Shop owners understand that law enforcement officers are not up to them now, and they protect their business on their own. One of them, Emin Kachmaz, the owner of a furniture store, says:

“The store is a complete mess. All the goods are damaged, all the windows are broken. So I’m on guard here in front of my store. Our house was not destroyed, but no one is returning home because it’s dangerous now. There are still aftershocks.”

On top of that, the weather is not happy – rain, snow, cold. The people left on the street need to survive somehow. The authorities are trying to help the victims, but it is clear that this cannot be done quickly. With such a scale of the disaster, it is not even possible to quickly reach everyone. So it turns out that some become marauders just to survive on their own and save their children…