ISTANBUL (AP) — On Tuesday, millions of people throughout Turkey grieved the loss of over 53,000 friends, family, and neighbors in the country’s devastating earthquake a year ago. The government organized a series of events to honor the one-year anniversary of the disaster in southern Turkey, referred to as the “Disaster of the Century”. In Antakya, the capital of the southern province of Hatay, officials faced angry crowds, with Mayor Lutfu Savas being urged to resign, and Health Minister Fahrettin Koca being jeered and booed during his speech.
Amid the mist near the Orontes River, individuals chanted “Can anyone hear me?”—echoing the cries of those buried under the rubble a year ago—and “We won’t forget, we won’t forgive.” After a moment of silence at 4:17 a.m. to mark the time the quake struck, carnations were thrown into the river as a gesture of remembrance, and a local orchestra performed a piece to honor the victims.
Hatay, located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Syrian border, was the most severely impacted of the 11 southern provinces affected by the 7.8 magnitude quake. Including the 6,000 people killed in neighboring Syria, the earthquake resulted in over 59,000 deaths. In Adiyaman, crowds partook in a silent procession, passing by a clock tower that has displayed the time of the earthquake for the past year. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be in Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of the earthquake, to oversee the rebuilding and relocation efforts for the thousands of individuals still residing in tents and prefabricated containers.
He will also participate in the handover of completed homes to survivors, and spend the remainder of the week visiting other cities in the earthquake-affected area. In a social media post, the president stated that the loss from the disaster “continues to burn our hearts as fresh as the first day,” and added, “Thank God, our nation has successfully passed this painful and historical test.” Opposition politicians are also visiting the region, with the leader of the Republican People’s Party, Ozgur Ozel, attending commemorations in Hatay before traveling to Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras. Schools were closed for the day in many of the earthquake-affected provinces. In Malatya, the governor prohibited any marches or other public demonstrations outside of officially sanctioned events for three days.
