ITIC MEA 2023 | Responding to the Turkey earthquakes
In the fourth session, Ozan Alemdaroğlu, Deputy General Manager of Redstar Aviation, and Dr Ozan Raimondo Perri of Marm Assistance, explained how their organisations helped provide emergency support in the aftermath of the earthquakes on 6 February in Turkey
The ITIJ team have been reporting from ITIC MEA 2023 in Abu Dhabi this week (15th May 2023) sharing the discussions that took place at the conference. Read all reports
Ozan Alemdaroğlu, Deputy General Manager of Redstar Aviation began by explaining that the earthquakes on 6 February, which had an epicentre of approximately 37km west of the city of Gaziantep, affected 14 million people in total, and left over 500,000 people dead and over 122,000 injured in Turkey alone – with many more killed across the border in Syria. An area of roughly 350,000 square kilometres was affected, leading to the collapse of 240,000 buildings.
Alemdaroğlu explained that while there has been criticism of the government’s initial response to the crisis, a range of public sector organisations were involved in supporting rescue efforts, including the ‘gendarmerie, police and public workers’, as well as the military, in addition to private assistance operators. He added that ‘military aircraft transferred 1,352 patients from the region’ in the initial response period.
Beyond this, Alemdaroğlu said that ordinary Turkish citizens played a vital role in providing support to victims of the earthquakes, providing aid and other support. He noted the important roles played by professionals in the mining industry, who supplied their expertise to support the rescue of victims from under piles of rubble, as well as the work of firefighters.
Speaking about Redstar’s own actions during the crisis, Alemdaroğlu said that ‘on the first day … we communicated with the Ministry of Health and decided to assign our whole fleet to the rescue operations’. Redstar supplied a mixed fleet of rotorcraft and fixed-wing aircraft to support the emergency response.
Consequently, he explained that the aeromedical operator’s commercial interests took a back seat during the initial response: “We did not respond to our partners, especially in the commercial parts,” said Alemdaroğlu. “Unfortunately we had to support the region, and we decided to go for it.”
“We initiated our emergency response plan (ERP) and … [all] relevant departments took necessary actions in moving to rescue operations.” This meant that Redstar’s focus was temporarily shifted away from its non-emergency services, such as its transport services for the oil and gas industries.
Dr Ozan Raimondo Perri, a Medical Doctor (MD) with Marm Assistance, began by noting that international support for the disaster in Turkey was substantial, with 88 countries sending search and rescue teams, amounting to around 11,000 personnel providing ‘much-appreciated support’.
Meanwhile, ‘dozens of countries sent medical teams, medicines, medical supplies, helmets … tents, and containers.’ Field hospitals were constructed by 28 countries, with major contributors including Israel, Italy, Qatar, Spain, and the UK. Over 2070 people. “We would like to thank you, everyone and all the countries that your presence for the most appreciated, help and support,” Perri added.
Perri explained that ‘when the news of about the earthquake reached [Marm], we immediately had meetings the same meeting to decide how to react’ to assist survivors.
The company pooled its collective experience responding to previous Turkish earthquakes, such as the ‘1993 Erzincan, 1999 İzmit and Düzce, and 2020 Elazığ earthquakes, and activated its 24/7 Disaster Assessment and Assistance Center as a first course of action’.
Marm Assistance used its expertise in ‘getting the right information at the right time’ to ensure that the right services were delivered as needed – something which Perri said was useful in its ‘very productive cooperation with Redstar’.
“Our operations department contacted Marm’s local healthcare and technical partners, clinics and ambulances in the disaster zone,” he explained. “We collected and updated information on a regular basis.” He explained that medical teams were sent to regions affected by the disaster, alongside specialist doctors who helped to provide support and coordination at field hospitals.
He added that Marm also sent a mobile clinic equipped with accommodation and toilets to the scene of the disaster, while its office in Istanbul acquired ‘blankets, winter clothes, canned food, power banks, flashlights and other necessities … and had them sent to the region with our aid truck’.
“Overall, Marm provided medical and psychological assistance for more than 8000 patients,” he said.
Perri concluded by saying that while he felt that assistance companies such as Marm had delivered a rapid response to the crisis, he questioned whether there had been sufficient planning to ‘as a country, [Turkey] have to make a proper disaster management plan’ to tackle future crises – particularly earthquakes. “Turkey is an earthquake country … earthquakes can happen any time. So, we need a proper plan in place to reach the area of a disaster quickly,” he said.