Turkey mourns tens of thousands of people killed in earthquake last year

Many people in Turkey felt sad on Tuesday because they remembered the more than 53,000 people who died in an earthquake there a year ago.

The government organized some events to remember the big disaster that happened a year ago in southern Turkiye. They are calling it the “Disaster of the Century. ”

In Antakya, which is the main city in the southern province of Hatay, upset crowds pushed and shoved with the police while officials were taken to the events. The mayor was told to quit by people shouting at him, and the health minister was booed when he spoke.

In the fog by the Orontes River, people were chanting “Can anyone hear me. ” and “We won’t forget, we won’t forgive,” echoing the voices of those who died in a building collapse last year.

“Mustafa Bahadirli, who is 24 years old and lives in Antakya, said that some people were buried alive. ” We used to call the government ‘father’, but now we feel like we don’t have a father in the government anymore. We were left alone for many days and are still alone.

Sebnem Yesil, who is 22 years old, said bad things about the government and also about opposition politicians like Savas, the mayor.

She said she thinks they have been very rude. “It’s been a year, and now they’ve finally arrived for a ceremony. ” You didn’t listen to us, you didn’t give us any help, at least let us mourn.

After a short time of quiet at 4:17 in the morning. To remember when the earthquake happened, people threw flowers into the river and a band played a song for the people who were hurt.

Hatay, a place between the Mediterranean Sea and the Syrian border, was the most damaged out of 11 provinces in the south when a very strong earthquake hit. The earthquake killed over 59,000 people, including 6,000 in Syria.

People in Adiyaman walked quietly in a group, going past a clock tower that has been showing the time of the earthquake for a year.

President Erdogan supervised a housing lottery for new homes in the city of Kahramanmaras, which was at the center of the earthquake. He also checked the progress of rebuilding the city and relocating thousands of people who are still living in tents and temporary shelters.

“Today, we are having a lottery for 9,289 houses in Kahramanmaras and giving the keys to the new owners,” Erdogan said. He said the government wants to build 200,000 homes in the area affected by the earthquake by the end of the year.

Then the families chosen to receive new homes were called on stage to get the keys from Erdogan. The event was shown on TV all over the country.

Earlier, at 4:17 in the morning, Erdogan wrote on social media that the pain of the disaster still hurts, but he is grateful that the country has passed the test.

Other politicians from a different party are also going to the area. The leader of the Republican People’s Party, Ozgur Ozel, will be at the events in Hatay, and then he will go to Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras.

Schools were shut down for the day in many provinces affected by the earthquake. The governor in Malatya stopped people from having marches or public events for three days, unless they were officially approved.

At the same time, Mads Brinch Hansen, who is in charge of the Red Cross team in Syria, said few things look good for fixing the country after the earthquake.

“We don’t have enough money to consider doing bigger rehabilitation and reconstruction,” he said.