Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
6th International Congress on Multidisciplinary Social Sciences (ICMUSS-2024), Ankara, Türkiye, 21 - 22 Mayıs 2024, ss.101
The earthquakes that struck Hatay and Maraş in February 2023 are regarded as the "disaster of the century" due to their severity and widespread impacts. These earthquakes affected a wide area, claimed thousands of lives and a great number of buildings were severely damaged or completely destroyed. These consecutive earthquakes had significant social, economic, and psychological effects on the nation as a whole as well as the 11 provinces that were hit, particularly Hatay. The districts that have been most affected by the earthquake are Kırıkhan, İskenderun, Samandağ, and Anktakya, Hatay’s central district. The earthquakes of 2023, which became one of the world's greatest catastrophes due to the large number of casualties and damage, not only affected the local population’s mental and economic well-being, but also brought about significant social problems. According to interviews conducted between March 26-31, 2024 with people from Hatay who migrated to Eskişehir, the earthquake had an impact on family structures and led to the dissolution of numerous households. In general, it is acknowledged that due to the psychological and economic impacts of the earthquake, incompatibility and disagreements between the couples increased and this situation influenced the decisions to divorce. It was frequently mentioned among the interviewees that the reasons for the divorces may have developed as a result of the psychological effects of the earthquake. Numerous interviewees expressed that negativities caused by the inability to meet the pre-earthquake standards and the struggle to make finances meet made pre-earthquake problems much more evident and were effective in the decisions to divorce. In some cases, it was stated that some men wanted to leave their wives and some avoided taking responsibility after the earthquake on the grounds that their wives could survive by selling local homemade food. However, in other cases, it was noted that older men decided to go abroad in order to provide for their families, to cover the expenses of their children’s university education and to rebuild the houses they had built with their savings, while women took on the care and responsibilities of the remaining family members (father-in-law, mother-in-law) and children. In some families, the husband continued to work in Hatay to support the family, while the wife relocated their children to relatively safe and affordable provinces in order to access better educational possibilities. However, it was also observed that older parents, including those with health problems, relocated to other cities with their children in search of better medical opportunities. In general, it is understood that men either went abroad or returned to Hatay to provide for the household, while women moved to other cities to give their children better educational opportunities and to give elderly members access to health facilities. At this point, it can be concluded that the earthquake had a profound impact on social structure in general and family structures in particular.