Turkiye grieves a year after quake

ANTAKYA, Turkiye — Ravaged by grief, bearing torches and holding up portraits of their lost families, thousands of earthquake survivors gathered in the predawn hours on Tuesday for the first anniversary of Turkiye's worst disaster of modern times.

At 4:17 am, the moment the first magnitude-7.8 earthquake set off a calamity that claimed more than 53,000 lives in Turkiye and nearly 6,000 in Syria, those affected by the quake gathered in the ruins of Antakya, capital of the southern province of Hatay, the hardest-hit region.

Last year's Feb 6 disaster flattened swathes of cities across 11 southern Turkish provinces and parts of Syria, becoming the quake-prone region's worst catastrophe in centuries.

It displaced millions and forced hundreds of thousands to move into container camps, where they have spent the past year haunted by the past.

The trauma and bouts of anger spilled over when people briefly scuffled with the police, who tried to stop one Antakya procession with barrier fences, according to Agence France-Presse reporters at the scene.

But the overall mood was much the same as it was when disaster first struck — overwhelming grief and lingering disbelief.

Amid the fog by the Orontes River, people chanted "Can anyone hear me?" — echoing the voices of those buried under the rubble a year ago — and "We won't forget, we won't forgive".

The survivors embraced, placing candles where their loved ones were crushed to death in their sleep.

"Some of us were buried alive," said Mustafa Bahadirli, a 24-year-old in Antakya. "We called our government 'father' but the government left us without a father. We were abandoned for days and are still abandoned."

After a moment of silence, carnations were tossed into the river in an act of remembrance and a local orchestra played a song to honor the victims.

"It doesn't feel like it was a year ago. For me, it feels like it was yesterday," said Eda Boz, 44, who was forced to move to the capital Ankara and returned to Antakya for the commemorations.

"My childhood friends and classmates lived in this building," Boz said through tears. "We all knew each other."

The initial earthquake lasted 65 seconds, followed by thousands of aftershocks including a particularly frightening magnitude-7.5 one later that first fateful day.

In the wake of the disaster, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government promised to rebuild 680,000 homes across 11 provinces over two years, including some 250,000 in Hatay. Officials unveiled the latest homes for families in the run-up to the one-year anniversary.

Residents say the container homes are generally warm enough at night. Other displaced residents ended up in prefabricated houses that are a bit larger with two bedrooms and a living room.

In Antakya's historical Uzun Carsi Bazaar, parts of which withstood the quake even as much of the city center collapsed, economic strains are evident now that one-third of the residents and tourists, once so vital, have vanished.

"Tourists don't visit Hatay anymore and many locals left the city or live in container houses located on the outskirts of the city. The recovery will take time," said Fatih Uzunparmak, owner of a local dessert maker Cinaralti Kunefe, whose shop once regularly had long queues outside.

Shoemaker Mustafa Okay says the shop owners in Uzun Carsi Bazaar are still struggling financially, but he is hopeful things will get better in the coming months.

"I got loans from the banks and now I have to pay them back," he said. "Business is sluggish for now, but I hope it will get better after the winter."

Agencies - Xinhua