Abstract
Turkey is a country especially prone to earthquakes due to its geophysical position. After the strikes of the 1999 earthquakes, department of translation and interpretation in Turkey launched training courses for the interpreters who would volunteer to provide services to foreign search and rescue teams. A form of emergency interpreting that aims to provide help with communication during search and rescue operations, this practice so far remained unique to Turkey. This chapter offers a report on the historical context, the organization, and the training offered within this practice. While reassessing its operations in ten years of activity, this chapter focuses on both its accomplishments and weaknesses that this training and support project is considered in this chapter with an eye to its current and future challenges. This article suggests that the Turkish model (ARC) may represent an example or even a model to consider for including linguistic mediation in the disaster for multilingual countries vulnerable to disasters.
This study is an extended and updated version of an article published in the Journal of Faculty of Letters of Hacettepe University, available online at: http://www.edebiyatdergisi.hacettepe.edu.tr/index.php/EFD/article/view/499/359.
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Notes
- 1.
These currently include: the United Nations International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (UN-INSARAG), the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA), United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs (UNDHA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and the Virtual On-Site Operations Coordination Center (VOSOCC).
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Doğan, A. (2016). Anybody Down There? Emergency and Disaster Interpreting in Turkey. In: Federici, F. (eds) Mediating Emergencies and Conflicts. Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55351-5_3
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