HATAY (Türkiye): “I saw other buildings collapsing, row after row, and then it was ours,” 37-year-old Filiz Turhan recalled that early morning in tears.
One year ago, Turhan and her family of four managed to get out into the open from their apartment building when a massive earthquake struck southern Türkiye.
It was at 4.17 am local time on Feb 6, 2023.
“The earthquake hit from below, accompanied by a terrible noise. We managed to find the door and get outside through the partially collapsed staircase,” Turhan said in a recent interview with Xinhua in Hatay, the hardest-hit province.
The Turhan family first moved to a tent city, and since April last year, they have been living in a container city.
Tent cities and container camps have been built in the quake-hit provinces after the quake, providing temporary housing units as well as psychological support facilities and social spaces.
The Turhans seemed content with their physical condition. However, she still described their psychological states as a “giant void”.
“Psychological support has come, but no matter how hard you try, you cannot forget what you have experienced for a lifetime,” she said.
“When you think of those who lost their loved ones in the rubble, you feel ashamed of your humanity. You remember how desperate and helpless we all were.”
Emine Demirvanli, a 60-year-old resident of the container city in Hatay, couldn’t sleep when she recalled the night of the earthquake.
“The tremor threw us out of our seats. I screamed at my son, and my son screamed at me. We managed to meet at the entrance. I opened the door, and we somehow went out,” Emine told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Emine recalled how she had pulled an elderly woman and then a young student out of the rubble.
For Hatay residents, the night on the first anniversary of the deadly earthquake is a sleepless one.
Tens of thousands held a silent march with fire torches to commemorate their loved ones.
Some citizens, carrying a banner reading “We will not forget,” scattered red carnations on the river Asi, the symbol of the city.
Many others flocked to the cemeteries and placed Turkish flags on top of the graves, while some families placed toys and clothes on their children’s graves.
The twin quakes, measuring 7.7 and 7.6 on the Richter scale, struck Türkiye on Feb 6, 2023. The earthquake killed over 53,000 people in 11 Turkish provinces and displaced millions of others, marking the deadliest disaster in its modern history.
The vast scale of destruction and the estimated US$100 billion reconstruction bill further strained the country’s fragile economy. – BERNAMA-XINHUA
