In a street full of rubble, Fidan Turan seems lost, unable to imagine her future. After Monday’s devastating earthquake, the woman does not know whether to stay or leave the Turkish town of Antakya, which has been transformed into ruins.

At first glance, her building seems to have held up better than others in this southern Turkish town. The metal door is still there as are the windows, and air conditioners still hang on one wall.

Turkey and neighboring Syria were hit by two strong earthquakes on Monday, leaving more than 24,000 people dead, according to the most recent toll. In the area, further aftershocks are still feared.

“When I see the destroyed buildings, the dead bodies, it’s not a year or two from now that I project myself, but I can’t even imagine tomorrow,” Turan explains, his eyes filled with tears.

“We have lost 60 members of our extended family,” he explained. “Sixty! What can I say? It’s God’s will,” adds the sexagenarian.

With her finger, she shows the place where she used to live, on the fourth floor.

The family house was destroyed. “Where can we go? We have nothing left…”, she laments with a broken voice.

– On the street, on benches –

Her son, Inayet Turan, helps to bring down some belongings from the apartment, with a mixture of hope and anger.

“It is possible to rebuild, the state has the power to do it,” he says. However, “hundreds of people are on the streets, sleeping on benches, in parks. A solution must be found,” reflects the 35-year-old psychologist.

On a street in the south of the city, Mustafa Kaya carries a water purifier. His wife pulls a wheeled suitcase, accompanied by their daughter.

The family has been living in a tent since Monday and decided to fetch some things from the entrance of the house. They don’t dare to go in at all for fear of another landslide.

“We don’t know where we will be in a month or a year. We will do what the government says and what God allows (…) I have a brother in Istanbul, we will see if we go to his house, but I don’t even know how we will go,” explains Kaya.

Hatice Süslü, a 55-year-old woman, did not manage to recover anything from her house. Her only belonging is a tent she set up, among others, in a public park.

Some brought mattresses. Others, wrapped in blankets, try to warm themselves in front of small fires.

– “Life is over” –

“I don’t know what we will do, we are still waiting a few days to decide. We don’t know what will become of us,” he laments. “Those who died are released, but those who remained what will become of them?” he asks.

“There is nothing to say. Life is over,” he continues.

Next to him is Mehmet Ali Tuver, a 35-year-old shoe salesman. He managed to salvage a shed to which he added plastic sheeting to protect himself from the cold.

“Everyone is looking to leave, but here is our home, we can’t abandon it,” he opines.

Fetva Aşkar, 61 years old and originally from Antakya, does not plan to leave either. Without resources and with a husband who lost his job, she has no money to do so, even though her apartment became “uninhabitable.”

She also stays because she is still waiting for her siblings to be pulled out of the rubble. “We can’t leave without having found and buried them,” she explains.

 

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