Sudden Death in the Hills

In the eastern Turkish village of Lice, a single, slender minaret rose above the dust-clogged rubble. From the stony ridges above the village ran huge, pale, vertical scars gouged out by boulders dislodged during the earthquake that devastated Lice (pronounced lee-juh) earlier this month. Seismologists say the quake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale, just below the "severe" level in scientific terms (TIME cover, Sept. 1).

The 8,000 inhabitants of Lice measured their loss in the simpler terms of death, injury and destruction. More than 1,000 corpses were uncovered last week, and several hundred more may be found before the gruesome search is completed. Necmettin Esenter, a municipal clerk who lost eight members of his family, held out his bloody hands and wept: "I dug out my two-year-old daughter Vedia from under a rock with these hands."

The death toll was not limited to Lice. Landslides and other side effects that were set off by the earthquake killed at least another 1,000 in dozens of nearby hillside villages. An estimated 30,000 inhabitants of this remote southeastern farm region have been left homeless, and about 3,000 injuries have been reported.

The Lice area, which is situated at the juncture of two shifting rock plates, is one of three Turkish regions prone to earthquakes. Even more vulnerable than Lice are towns along the Anatolian fault, which cuts horizontally across the northern tier of Turkey. The third seismic zone is in the west, in Turkey's Aegean provinces. Since 1903 earthquakes have caused more than 64,000 deaths in these three regions.

Angry Turks. In 1966 the government offered to help residents of Lice relocate their homes on safer, flatter terrain below the existing village. Only 150 families were willing to make the move. Their reinforced concrete homes--unlike the older stone and mortar houses on the hillside--survived the recent earthquake with only slight damage. After a special five-hour Cabinet meeting last week, Turkey's Premier Suleyman Demirel promised that an estimated $35 million would be spent to house all the survivors of Lice in similarly quake-proof homes. The U.S. was expected to offer help, but the Turks, still angered by Congress's halt of arms sales and military aid following the Cyprus conflict, were reportedly reluctant to accept American assistance.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.