They Respond to Peoples Grief with Guns

Yasemin Elci is a 39-year-old housewife in Bingol. Their four-story house was badly damaged in Thursday's 6.4 magnitude quake. She said she has not gone inside her house since the quake.

One of her two children got sick and was sent to Elazig to be treated. She is looking for ways to get her other child out of Bingol too.

She said she could not understand why the police intervened in the protests against the Bingol governor. This will further frustrate the people in Bingol who are already in great grief, she explains.

"There was a quake here. I can't understand how the police could attack those people who had lost their relatives and houses, and who were protesting because of the shortage of aid. The people could even revolt, but do they have to respond with guns?"

Elci said soldiers surrounded the governor's building in Bingol after the quake. The people of Bingol were waiting around near the soldiers, she said.

Elci explained the reaction of the people of Bingol by saying that they were "both in grief and are living in great poverty."  Elci thinks the people would calm down if the aid were equally and justly distributed.

It's a miracle to be alive

Elci thinks it is a "miracle' that they are still alive. "If there is another small quake, the damaged buildings could collapse. For example, today, a nearby building collapsed during an aftershock," she said.

Elci not only complains about the police's behavior but also about the fact that the reporters only focused their attentions on the collapsed state boarding school in Celtiksuyu. The media does not report about the problems in other places in Bingol, she said. "Things inside are much different from what is seen from the outside," she added. (HA/BB/NK/EA/NM)