The village in Turkey that Barış Yapar as soon as referred to as residence now seems like something however.
Yapar is from Samandag within the southern province of Hatay — the area of Turkey that took the brunt of final yr’s devastating and lethal earthquake.
Samandag is simply outdoors town of Antakya, a cultural gem in Turkey that’s residence to revered historic websites and folks of numerous spiritual and ethnic backgrounds.
“Now it seems like a decayed land,” Yapar informed As It Occurs host Nil Köksal.
“[There’s] rubble that is nonetheless not cleared out. The scent continues to be not gone. The water continues to be not clear. The extra you stroll, the extra you inhale this horrible mud into your lungs and your eyes begin getting a bit of pink. And also you simply really feel misplaced.”
Tuesday marks one yr since a 7.8-magnitude quake struck southern Turkey and Syria. Greater than 59,000 folks have been killed, together with 6,000 in neighbouring Syria.
Whereas the federal government orchestrated nationwide occasions to mark the grim anniversary, residents protested that a lot of the area continues to be in a state of disrepair, lots of of persons are nonetheless unaccounted for and hundreds extra stay displaced in tents and makeshift shelters.
Working in a parking zone
Yapar lives in Cyprus the place he attends college. However he was visiting his mother and father in Samandag when the quake struck.
His mother and father’ home was badly broken, however they managed to flee. His grandparents, nevertheless, weren’t so fortunate. Their condominium just a few blocks away was diminished to rubble, with them trapped beneath.
The evening of the quake, Yapar spoke to As It Occurs from a parking zone in Samandag, the place he and his mother and father had taken refuge inside their automobile.
One yr later, he says his father nonetheless works out of a tent in that very same parking zone. His workplace was destroyed within the earthquake and has but to re-open. Many others reside in that lot — both in tents, cellular houses or makeshift shelters.
The earthquake pressured about 2.4 million folks from their houses into momentary settlements, based on the charity Save The Kids. Right now, extra 761,000 folks — together with 205,000 youngsters — are but to return residence.
Yapar’s mother and father additionally lived in a tent for 5 months after the quake, till they discovered a one-bedroom condominium to lease in Antakya.
In the meantime, he says there’s been no time to mourn.
“[The] earthquake has taken the privilege of individuals to grieve appropriately,” he mentioned. “After, for instance, we discovered my grandparents’ [remains], it was simply, like, an enormous race of taking them to a morgue after which taking them out the subsequent day after which burying them, after which going again to the automobile after which making an attempt to determine the way to survive.”
Not everybody has had even that a lot closure.
Selahattin Kaban, head of the Affiliation for Solidarity with Earthquake Victims and Family members of the Lacking, mentioned 140 folks, together with 38 youngsters, are nonetheless lacking because the quake.
Day of mourning
On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of individuals in Turkey took time to mourn — and to protest.
To mark what it calls the “Catastrophe of the Century,” the federal government organized a collection of occasions to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the catastrophe.
In Antakya, there was a second of silence at 4:17 a.m., which is when the earthquake hit, after which individuals tossed flowers into the river in an act of remembrance, whereas a neighborhood orchestra performed a track.
Crowds in Adiyaman held a silent march, passing a clock tower that for the previous yr has proven the time of the earthquake.
However the day wasn’t all quiet and sombre.
In Antakya, crowds clashed with police, referred to as on Mayor Lutfu Savas to resign, and jeered and booed throughout Well being Minister Fahrettin Koca’s speech.
Amid the fog by the Orontes River, folks chanted “Can anybody hear me?” — echoing the voices of these buried underneath the rubble a yr in the past — and “We can’t overlook, we can’t forgive.”
Sebnem Yesil, 22, criticized each the federal government and opposition politicians similar to Savas.
“I believe they’ve been extraordinarily disrespectful,” she mentioned. “It has been a yr, they by no means got here and now they’re right here for a ceremony…. You did not hear our voices, you did not assist, at the least allow us to grieve.”
In Cyprus, Yapar watched these occasions unfold on reside video.
“I could not truly sleep,” he mentioned. “It was a reasonably tough morning.”
Damaged guarantees, and a brand new residence lottery
As a part of the anniversary occasions, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan oversaw a lottery for newly constructed houses in Kahramanmaras, the quake’s epicentre. Households that have been picked out of the draw have been referred to as to the stage to obtain the keys to their new houses from Erdogan in a nationally broadcast ceremony.
As he handed them their keys, Erdogan mentioned the authorities goals to ship 200,000 houses throughout the quake zone by the tip of the yr.
Yapar is skeptical that can occur. For the reason that quake, he says the federal government has solely delivered a collection of unfulfilled guarantees.
“As soon as the elections handed, the whole lot in regards to the earthquake and all the guarantees and so forth have been similar to, all of them simply froze in time. So it is solely folks, in the event that they find the money for and alternatives, rebuilding issues for themselves to get a way of normality,” he mentioned.
In Syria, too, rebuilding seems more and more unlikely. Mads Brinch Hansen, head of the Worldwide Federation of the Purple Cross delegation to Syria, informed reporters in Geneva that there have been few prospects for post-earthquake reconstruction within the war-battered nation.
“We do not have the funding to even consider going into bigger scale rehabilitation and reconstruction,” he mentioned.
Yapar says his mother and father want to rebuild. However the authorities expropriated their home underneath a controversial new legislation handed late final yr permitting the federal authorities to grab houses it says are danger of catastrophe.
“Impulsively one morning my dad awoke and he acquired an SMS [text message] saying that your property has been authorised to be transferred to the Ministry of Heritage,” he mentioned
No one, he says, has been capable of inform them what which means for his or her future.
“Are we going to be positioned again into our homes, in our personal places? Or are we going to be positioned someplace else? Or are we going to be despatched to a special district?”
Yapar says he’d like return residence after he finishes his diploma — however he does not know if he’ll have one to return to.
“I am nonetheless not ready to return and construct myself a future,” he mentioned. “Every little thing feels a bit of too up within the air.”