Sabriye Karan's late husband worked for the Turkish national rail company for 32 years and her daughter Nehir grew up riding trains. After powerful earthquakes struck Turkey and damaged her home, she and Nehir moved into one.
Turkish families shelter on a train after earthquake brought life to a standstill
By Eloisa Lopez
Filed

Photography by Eloisa Lopez
Reporting by Eloisa Lopez and Henriette Chacar
Filed: March 2, 2023, 8 a.m. GMT
Sabriye Karan’s late husband worked for the Turkish national rail company for 32 years and her daughter Nehir grew up riding trains. After powerful earthquakes struck Turkey and damaged her home, she and Nehir moved into one.
“We never imagined we would live here,” said Sabriye, who has been sharing a two-bed sleeper cabin with 13-year-old Nehir for the past 18 days. “Normally, it’s a joy to travel on the train. But now it’s different.”
Turkish authorities have been racing to find accommodation for the more than 1.5 million people left homeless after February’s huge earthquakes, which killed some 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria. Survivors have been sheltering in tents, container homes, hotel resorts and even train carriages in Iskenderun, a port city in the province of Hatay, badly hit by the earthquakes.


Although Sabriye and Nehir’s third-floor flat was only lightly hit, with some cracks appearing on the walls, they fear going back. Subsequent earthquakes and aftershocks have caused further damage to weakened buildings and authorities have warned people that many are unsafe to enter.
Iskenderun station is open but two tracks are packed with wagons housing hundreds of survivors. Those first to arrive like Sabriye and Nehir found sleeper cabins. Others, like Arafat Ates, 63, and his wife Zeliha, 53, sleep upright on seats.

“Hatay, our beautiful land,” they lamented. “We don’t know how we will get through this disaster.”
In another carriage sat Yusuf Kurma, 20, and Aysel Ozcelik, 20, holding hands. The couple, who planned to marry, ran to find each other after the first shock. Now they might postpone the wedding. “We can’t have a wedding when we have so many dead,” Ozcelik said.

Afraid to go home
Step ladders and small benches dot the tracks to help people reach the carriages. Occasionally, a station employee warns survivors walking across the tracks that a train is approaching.
At first, every time a passing train blew its horn, it would startle Sabriye and Nehir. “Now we’re used to it,” said the 57-year old law firm clerk.
Their narrow cabin, the width of a train window, holds a few essentials and is warmer in the cold nights than a tent. They spend at least 18 hours a day inside, leaving only to take short walks around the station and line up for breakfast and dinner served by aid groups.


The sparse company since the earthquake upended their lives has taken a toll on their mental health, Sabriye said. Her husband died of COVID in 2020, and she had been struggling to cope with the loss, now compounded by the trauma of the quake.
“I feel so alone,” she said. “I miss our social life and drinking coffee with the neighbours.”
The mother and daughter visit their apartment for a couple of hours every other day. They move through it with caution but shower, do the laundry and take some food. When they leave, Sabriye recites a prayer.

“I don’t know if when I come back, it will still be standing or not,” she said.
After the local authorities determined their building was only moderately damaged and therefore safe, the pair tried to sleep at home again. But when they felt what they thought was another tremor, they panicked and fled, Sabriye said.
“We’re too afraid to go home, especially at night.”


She insists she will one day return to her house and has left the contents intact. She placed the television on the floor and put pillows around it, in case of another shock.
For now, the transience usually associated with train stations has evolved into an ambivalent permanence for the two.
But even in the relative safety of the train carriage, anxiety lingers. While a train worker was fixing the tracks one night, the train jolted, causing Nehir to gasp and cling to her mother.
“Here, when we shake, people die,” Sabriye said.


Families take shelter in a train at Iskenderun station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 15, 2023.

Families take shelter in a train at Iskenderun station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 17, 2023.

Yusuf Kurma and Aysel Ozcelik eat cheese for dinner in their carriage at Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 23, 2023.

A man and a woman cross the tracks of the Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 15, 2023.

Nehir climbs a ladder to get into her carriage in Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 22, 2023.

Yusuf Kurma and Aysel Ozcelik speak in one of the trains at Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 18, 2023.

Sabriye and Nehir share a carriage at Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 23, 2023.

Sabriye embraces her daughter Nehir in their carriage at Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 18, 2023.

A teapot is heated on a portable gas stove inside the train cabin of Sabriye and Nehir at Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 23, 2023.

Nehir waits for a neighbour to open their cabin at Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 18, 2023.

Nehir pours sanitiser on her hands before going to bed in their carriage at Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 23, 2023.

A woman affected by the recent deadly earthquake in Turkey stands on a train at Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 23, 2023.

Sabriye (4th-L) talks to a woman while queueing for a free meal from an aid organisation, with Nehir (3rd-L), outside Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 22, 2023.

Sabriye and Nehir eat free meals they received from an aid organisation outside Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 22, 2023.

Sabriye and Nehir enter their damaged apartment building for a short visit, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 23, 2023.

Nehir watches a television, which has been placed on the floor in case of another earthquake, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 23, 2023.

An Arabic prayer for protection, written by Nehir on a piece of paper, is taped on the cracked wall of her damaged home, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 23, 2023.

Nehir cooks sausages while Sabriye eats breakfast during a short visit to their damaged home in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 25, 2023.

Bottles of water, juice boxes, biscuits, and other food are stocked on the balcony of Sabriye and Nehir Karan’s damaged home in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 23, 2023.

A woman looks out from a train at Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 15, 2023.

A woman walks on the tracks at Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 15, 2023.

A view of the Iskenderun train station, in Iskenderun, Turkey, February 18, 2023.

The Wider Image
Photography: Eloisa Lopez
Reporting: Eloisa Lopez and Henriette Chacar
Photo editing and design: Eve Watling
Text editing: Alexandra Hudson