Translators plug critical communication gap in Türkiye quake relief efforts

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ADANA, Türkiye (AA) – There were still a few hours to dawn and Rana Kahraman was fast asleep at her home in Istanbul.

Her phone, oddly for that hour, kept ringing, rousing her from a deep slumber.

This was Feb. 6 and Kahraman had no idea just how important those phone calls would prove.

For, at that time, and for the next several days, there were people all across southern Türkiye facing any human’s worst nightmare – trapped under the rubble of thousands of buildings that came crashing down after two powerful earthquakes struck the region.

Kahraman answered the call to find her husband, who was in the southern province of Gaziantep, on the other end.

There was sheer panic in his voice: “Wake up, we’ve been hit by a strong earthquake.”

Kahraman jumped out of bed, knowing full well what she had to do next.

She is one of the general operational coordinators of Afette Rehber Cevirmenlik (ARC), which translates to Emergency and Disaster Interpreters, a group that works closely with the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD).

As the scale of the disaster became clearer, Kahraman knew that international teams would soon be in Türkiye for rescue and relief operations, and one of things they would need most on the ground was translators.

She alerted her group and asked colleagues to get ready for deployment in the 11 affected provinces – Kahramanmaras, Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa, and Elazig.

Since the twin tremors, more than 9,000 international search and rescue teams have participated in post-quake operations in southern Türkiye, where the death toll currently stands just shy of 39,700.

The ARC was set up in 2000, following the devastating 7.6 magnitude earthquake in the northwestern Turkish city of Izmit that claimed more than 17,000 lives.

Today, the ARC has over 1,000 members and is formally affiliated with the Translation and Interpreting Association of Türkiye.

Currently, Kahraman told Anadolu, ARC members are present in all of the affected areas to help foreign crews.

The group has set up two main coordination sites, one in Adana and the other in Gaziantep.

“What is heartening to see is that local people who are themselves victims of the earthquake have volunteered to join us as interpreters,” she said.

“They are victims and yet they are standing with us to help find survivors. They have shown exemplary spirit and we are glad to have them.”

- Volunteers from across Türkiye join in

With his eyes fixed on the arrivals gate, Abdulhamit Sen is clearly eager to assist.

“Hello, can I help you? I can speak English, don’t worry,” Sen greets international rescuers at the airport in Adana.

A native of Türkiye’s eastern province of Van, Sen has been at the airport, which has become a hub for international arrivals in the quake-hit regions, since Feb. 7.

“After the disaster happened, I told myself that if don’t help people, I will never forgive myself. I went to the airport on the first day and, later that night, I drove to Antakya (in Hatay province) to help build a hospital there,” he told Anadolu.

Sen was just one of thousands to volunteer.

According to Kahraman, the ARC has received approximately 10,000 applications from volunteer interpreters since Feb. 6.

“We had to filter through the applications because we need quality, not quantity,” she said, emphasizing that a volunteer must be “self-sufficient.”

They should have “enough capacity and proper equipment, including helmets, tents, and sleeping bags,” she said.

“We first deploy trained and experienced field coordinators to impacted areas, who then manage the deployment of volunteer interpreters to respective international search and rescue and relief teams,” she explained.

All of this has to be done “in close cooperation with national and local authorities, and then we move on to overall coordination with field coordinators,” she said.

Apart from ARC volunteers, members of the Istanbul Chamber of Tourist Guides (IRO), The Conference Interpreters Association of Türkiye (TKTD), and Literary Translators’ Society (CEVBIR) also joined in to help during this hour of need, Kahraman added.

- Interpreters for several languages

“There was a demand for interpreters of six major languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Arabic, and Russian,” said Kahraman.

Chinese, Japanese, Kurdish, and Dutch were the other languages that ARC volunteers helped out with, she added.

Regarding assistance provided to volunteers, Kahraman said AFAD organized their transport to different areas.

“The volunteers adjust according to the situation,” she said.

Kahraman said the ARC will continue to provide services to rescue and relief teams until Sunday.

Aytac Unal Demircan, who heads the ARC’s Ankara-based assignment unit, told Anadolu that around 200 interpreters were sent to disaster-hit areas to assist more than 100 foreign teams and relief organizations from more than 70 countries.

On the association’s own operations, she said the ARC “plans and organizes targeted trainings at various levels.”

“The scope of trainings varies from disaster preparedness, operations planning, interpretation and field skills, international humanitarian landscape, building structures, first aid and mental health, to national and international drills for better preparedness,” Demircan said, citing their participation in the 2021 EU Modex Exercise as an example.

“The ARC will review and evaluate this experience and maintain its efforts for even stronger organizational presence in the future.”

Kahraman chipped in to point out just how vital ARC personnel were in the quake response.

Search and rescue teams “have tools and equipment to search for survivors, and our tool is our skill of translation to help those in need,” she said.

“We are mediators, acting as channels to make communication easier, and ensure that the work of search and rescue teams is productive,” she added.