In the southern Turkish city of Antakya, Behzat put a blanket and an umbrella over his father, who was trapped under the rubble after one of the most devastating earthquakes in recent history hit the town and destroyed Behzat’s childhood home. He dug his father out with his bare hands and promised the old man, whose legs were stuck under a concrete block, that help was on the way.
Twenty-four agonizing hours later, Behzat asked his wife, my sister Gokce, to check on him. “I cannot look him in the eye anymore. I told him help was coming. It isn’t.” Behzat’s father died, as did his mother, his cousins, and thousands of others, because there was no one there to provide the needed help.
