Turks in Germany: Earthquake destroys retirement plans

Leyla Coplu's dream of owning her own home in Turkey crumbled within minutes. But it took her and her husband Tahsin weeks to realize. The 48-year-old was born in Germany and has worked for 30 years in a bakery in Gelsenkirchen-Horst, a small town in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Her husband is from Adiyaman, one of the cities hardest hit by the earthquakes that devastated Turkey and Syria in February. Tahsin Coplu moved to Germany 30 years ago, after they married. A few years ago, they bought a house in Golbasi, outside Adiyaman. Like many people of Turkish origin in Germany, the couple cherished a dream of spending their retirement in their home country and put aside all their savings to one day live close to Tahsin's family.

But then came the morning of February 6, when two earthquakes of magnitude 7.0, three quakes stronger than 6.0, and well over a hundred tremors hit the small town. Together, these quakes all but destroyed Golbasi. The Coplu's house was badly damaged and is to be demolished.

"I don't think I have enough time to see the reconstruction of the city," Tahsin Coplu said. "We no longer plan to spend our retirement in my hometown. Even though we would like to buy a new house, we don't have enough money for it. Living in Germany has become expensive, we can't buy a new house. All the money we have saved over the years is gone." 

So far, they say they have not received any aid, and nor do they expect to.

Trauma runs deep

DW has learned of many cases of elderly immigrants in Germany who depend on the rental income from a house in Turkey to supplement their pensions, and of many others who were on the verge of fulfilling their lifelong dream of moving to Turkey, paid for by a lifetime of work. But few wanted to talk about it.

More than 50,000 people have died so far as a result of the earthquakes, according to the Turkish government, but many believe the real figure is actually much higher, as many bodies have yet to been found. Perhaps partly for that reason, few organizations wanted to discuss the lost properties with DW.

For the first generation of immigrants, buying real estate in Turkey was not a long-term plan at first. It was primarily a matter of securing an income for the family in the homeland. Many so-called guest workers saved up to two-thirds of their income to send back to their homeland. But for others in that initial generation of people who came to Germany, life plans were focused on returning. 

This changed later. Many Turkish workers stayed in Germany longer than planned and spent more and more of their wages on everyday consumption, gradually building a life in Germany, and bought real estate in Turkey as a retirement plan. According to a study, about 30% of people of Turkish origin perceive both Germany and Turkey as home, while around 48% feel that only Turkey is their home.

A house as a family meeting place, no matter where you live

Among this generation are the Coban family, who live in Berlin. Can Coban is from Antakya in Hatay, a city that was almost completely destroyed by the earthquake, while Maria Coban's parents come from the village of Cneydo, not far from there.

Their daughter Alicia was born in Berlin, and yet the 20-year-old says of Antakya: "For me it's home, a magical place, not just a vacation. I can immerse myself in my own family history there. Where my grandparents' parents planted the olive trees that we still harvest today."

Maria Coban's parents went to work in France, where she was born, and where her parents still live, while Can's parents worked in Germany, where he was born. But the couple have a house in Cneydo, close to Antakya, the village where her family is from.

Cneydo has just 300 inhabitants, but in the summer and for the olive harvest more than 5,000 people work there. Aunts and cousins from all over the world return to repair the houses, to press oil, to harvest and to hear the latest news from others.

Not everyone has earthquake insurance

The Cobans' house in Cneydo suffered only a few cracks from the earthquake, and they gave it to a family that lost everything. The Cobans will travel there again in the summer but will stay with a cousin or a friend, they explained.

But their apartment in Antakya was completely destroyed in the earthquake, and, like so many, they don't have earthquake insurance. Can Coban explains: "We knew about small quakes, but we didn't expect such big ones. No authority or insurance company ever made us aware of this."

They were planning to go to Antakya more often to spend more time in their hometown, but those plans had to change. Now they hope that the city will be rebuilt.

The Coplu family say they knew about the earthquake risk before buying the house from Adiyaman. Many had talked of earthquakes since they were children, but no one expected a disaster on this scale, and they too had no insurance. They say that if they had foreseen the extent of the disaster, they would not have bought their house there.

'Maybe now people will open their eyes'

For the first few days after the quake, Maria and Can Coban were in a state of disbelief. The magnitude seemed completely unreal. Family members in Antakya kept them up to date with videos as they witnessed people fighting for their lives for days after being buried under rubble, with no help coming from the government.

Maria Coban is still incensed today. "Maybe now people will open their eyes at the polls and vote for a nicer, more democratic Turkey," said the 42-year-old. 

Turkey is holding parliamentary and presidential elections on May 14. Until now, Turks living abroad have been solid supporters of the ruling AKP party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but after the earthquake they is no longer a safe bet. Many voters in Germany have noted how disorganized Erdogan's aid for the earthquake victims has been.

The Coplu family said they have never supported the AKP, but after the earthquake they lost all faith.

But the Cobans didn't only lose an apartment. They had spent two years working toward opening their own catering business, and almost all the homegrown ingredients for it were supposed to come from Cneydo.

The container was already ready in the port city of Iskenderun. Here, too, a fire started at the port after the earthquakes and devastated everything. And yet Can Coban says: "We have to cope with that. Life is more important than a house or goods." They are still hoping to buy a house or an apartment there again as soon as possible.

The Coplu family, on the other hand, has had to give up the plan of ever returning to Turkey.

Edited by: Ben Knight

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