Turkiye - Omar Hamed Beato

Returning home: Antakya four months on

The first rays of dawn put an end to a long and dark night, illuminating the remnants of Antakya, a city now reduced to ruins, echoing with emptiness and silence.

The silence is interrupted by Hatice's laments, who, alongside her husband Volkan, and son Hakan, walk among the rubble they used to call home for the first time since they left Antakya in early February. "We lost many old friends, and our nephew died here", says Volkan.

Volkan, Hatice, and Hakan standing on what is left of their home.

Four months later, Hatice’s nails are still broken after she tried to pull her relatives out of the gravel with her bare hands before rescue teams arrived.

A resident walks home after doing some groceries.

Antakya, a city of more than 200,000 inhabitants, once a thriving multicultural hub in Hatay province bordering northwest Syria, suffered the worst destruction and highest death toll from earthquakes that struck southern Turkey and northwest Syria last February. Over 23,000 people have been found dead, and thousands more have been injured in this province alone.

Four months on, half the city has fled to other provinces in Turkey, and those who have remained only encounter wreckage and desolation now that the rescue teams are gone and the city enters the demolition phase.

Walking around Antakya feels like walking around a war zone. 3,100 buildings collapsed during the earthquake and the ones still standing have structural damage that makes them uninhabitable. Now, demolition teams from all over the country are tearing them down, day in and night out.

Two men observe an excavator demolishing their house.

A demolition team tearing down a building during nighttime.

Despite the associated risks of entering damaged buildings, and repeated warnings from Turkish security forces, Volkan and his family belong to a group of residents who are entering their homes, or what is left of them, to recover any valuable items before demolition teams arrive on the scene.‘’We have mixed feelings when we enter the building’’ he says as he collects his father’s portrait from his parent’s house.

Despite losing old friends and his house, Volkan is relatively lucky, his son and wife, and his closest family members have survived the earthquake.

Volkan inside his parent’s house looking for any items of personal value.

Hakan and Hatice, Volkan’s son and wife, talk to a relative on the phone while they walk around the city centre.

The human and economic loss is incalculable, entire families have been wiped out, and those who have survived have lost loved ones, their homes, and in many cases both. Some people have lost more than 15 relatives. This has created a huge mental health crisis. Residents report that they have not received any mental health support for months.

A family mourning the death of a relative. Many bodies have not been identified and are just labelled as numbers.

This is the case of Hava, who was trapped under the rubble for 14 hours until she was rescued by her son, who came from another city in Turkey for her rescue. ‘’I tried to get up when the ground was shaking and saw the building falling all over me’’, Hava explains. She has lost her husband, daughter, and grandchildren.

Hava (centre) ‘’celebrating’’ the end of Ramadan with relatives.

Moreover, she is still recovering from her injuries. She has titanium implants in her jaw, wounds in her feet, and a broken arm. When asked how she is coping with this huge loss, she says ‘’I just pray to God, I need time to be happy again’’.

Living in Antakya in its current state is a challenge. Most shops have closed, there is water scarcity, and people have to live in tents. According to Support to Life, a local NGO, most shelters do not have access to running water and lack appropriate hygiene facilities. People can only shower every fortnight. Consequently, there have been reports of skin diseases, especially among women.

A shopkeeper selling vegetables in a makeshift shop. Most businesses have been destroyed.

On top of that, due to all the debris and machinery working on the demolition process, there is a layer of dust over the city that makes breathing difficult. Despite all these hardships, many are refusing to leave.

This is the case of Mohammed, a local shopkeeper who is currently living in a tent with his family. ‘’We love it here, we don’t want to leave our city, we were born here and we will die here’’ he comments. His auntie Hide, who is also living in a tent, says that ‘’We need help with everything: water, blankets, cleaning products, …’’.

Both said that most help comes from NGOs, not the Turkish government, whose ability to provide aid is hampered by a weak Lira and the economic crisis the country is currently facing.

Mohammed posing for a portrait in the camp where he lives.

A woman teaches a girl how to dance in a camp after she was gifted a record player for her birthday.

People in Antakya live day by day, there is still a lot of uncertainty about what will happen in the future and whether the government will allow people to return to their houses, as many parts of the city are being expropriated by the state. It will take many months until the soil is properly assessed and decisions can be made about whether it is safe to reconstruct buildings in the same location. Nobody knows where the money to rebuild their lives will come from. As of April, only 28% of the planned UN recovery fund has been raised.

Serdar, another local who lost his house and rescued 22 people from his building before rescue teams showed up, is unsure what will happen. Even four months later, the ground is still shaking, although on a much smaller scale. Despite this, he wants to continue his life, ‘’I must continue, I have a little daughter and a sick father. I have no choice’’.

Despite the apocalypse, Antakya still votes for Erdoğan

Before the general election on May 14th, many polls suggested that the united opposition led by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu had a healthy advantage over President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The vast number of losses and casualties during the earthquakes and the mismanagement of the economy produced a backlash in many parts of Turkish society that questioned the government.

However, in Antakya, Erdoğan still enjoys widespread support. Despite facing a united opposition, his support in this city has remained constant compared to the 2018 general election.

A Red Crescent volunteer shows pictures to a woman living in a camp in Antakya. Many of the people who have remained in Antakya have a strong affiliation with Islam, which is a demographic group that generally supports Erdoğan.

One of the factors that could have played a role is that, despite the earthquake, Antakya’s average voter has a conservative profile.

Abdurrahman, a local business owner whose shop has been destroyed and has stayed in Antakya, still hangs to Erdoğan’s vote based on a common identity: Islam ‘’Kılıçdaroğlu (opposition leader) is not a real Muslim, he has Armenian roots. Erdoğan is the right person for Turkey, he developed the country and I believe he will fix the economy. I will forever support him, he is Muslim’’ affirms Abdurrahman.

Pelin, a humanitarian worker in Antakya, thinks that different factors could have played a role. “People like stability, vulnerable people even more’’. In the Antakya district alone, more than 200,000 people had to abandon their homes and live in internally displaced camps.

Workers spreading lime dust in a mass graveyard in Antakya. Many of the bodies are unidentified and have not been removed from the electoral lists closed in March.

The city centre was the area most affected by the earthquake. According to Pelin ‘’These neighbourhoods were heavily populated by opposition supporters’’. It is here where most displaced people who have moved to other provinces come from.

All these people had to come back to Antakya on the 14th of May to vote. Despite many NGOs, political parties, and municipalities offering free transportation to the earthquake-hit areas, there is a large number of people who could not return to the city to cast their votes, which damaged the opposition's chances.

This is the case of Zeynep, she moved to eastern Turkey after the earthquake and could not come back on election day to vote for the opposition. ‘’I have a little daughter, it is so difficult to go there [Antakya] with her. [There is] no fresh air, no food, no clean environment…These [things] are very important for her’’.

A girl walks around the rubble looking for toys that belonged to kids who lived in the building complex.

Zeynep’s case is not unique. According to the Anadolu Agency, the state-run media outlet of Turkey, 52,000 fewer people voted in this election in Antakya compared to 2018, resulting in a 15 percentage point drop in voter turnout. This highlights the destruction Antakya has gone through and the challenges of moving dozens of thousands of people to one destroyed city for a day to exercise their rights.

Omar Hamed Beato
Visual Journalist

Despite the apocalypse, Antakya still votes for Erdoğan

Omar Hamed Beato

I am Omar, a visual journalist from Spain who loves creating stories in written, photo, and video formats.

Omar Hamed Beato Visual Journalist

Despite the apocalypse, Antakya still votes for Erdoğan

Omar Hamed Beato

I am Omar, a visual journalist from Spain who loves creating stories in written, photo, and video formats.

Omar Hamed Beato
Visual Journalist