The married couple Ismail and Ayse will be laid to rest. Ayse was picked up from the ruins of her home on Friday morning. On the same day, the relatives gather in mourning at the small cemetery – again. The hearse waits and takes the coffins with it after the burial – there is a shortage of that in an area where over 20,000 have now been confirmed dead in Turkey. A couple is carried into the small burial ground. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news Those buried here are mostly from the village of Karapolat, but several lived in Islahiye a few kilometers away. – We have no family left. Everything is finished, says Mevlude Dogan. Through her husband, she is related to the married couple who are being buried. In the small cemetery, a person has already been buried when news arrives at the site. Six people were buried yesterday. Five empty graves await those who have not yet been found in the building masses. Mevlude Dogan has lost a large part of his family in the earthquake. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news In village cemeteries in the area, the situation is the same. Holes in the ground are ready for those who were buried alive. Extended families howling in grief and pain. Body bags with the same surname inscribed testify to entire families wiped out in the quake. In several places, they are left when the burial is over. – We live in the earthquake all the time. We are so scared. We don’t dare go into our houses, says Dogan. Four small graves in a cemetery outside Islahiye Half the town may be gone Islahiye, with its around 66,000 inhabitants, was hit hard when the earthquake struck on the night of Monday. A state of emergency has been declared in ten Turkish cities. After five days, relatives just hope they have someone to bury. District mayor Fatma Sahin said earlier this week that half the city’s buildings are gone. You can still see the remains of the lives that have been lived in the ruins. Sofas, beds, chandeliers in the ceiling, TVs hanging on the walls. The houses that are still standing are too dangerous to return home to. Thousands are left without homes. A family says goodbye to one of their dead. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news Several residents news spoke to believe that almost half of the residents have died. Very few of them have been recovered from the building masses. – They started taking out the dead today. The authorities say that over 20,000 have died, but we estimate that 30,000 have been killed in Islahiye alone, says Mehmet, one of the relatives of the dead couple. This is one of many funerals he is going to. He himself has lost over 50 relatives in the earthquake, he says. The imam is also marked when he leads the congregation in prayer. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news Mehmet does not want news to use his surname. He is critical of the authorities’ handling of the earthquake so far. – The excavators arrived on the third day. Professional rescue workers started in Islahiye yesterday, he says. His immediate family was fine when the earthquake hit. Now they live in their car. It is cold, and no one has set up toilets in the whole of Islahiye, he says. Five new graves are being prepared by the relatives of those presumed dead after the earthquake. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news Not enough equipment and people Islahiye is surrounded by high, white mountain peaks and an idyllic landscape. The contrast is strong with the shattered buildings and white tents. When news arrives in town, a family of four has just been found dead in a building. A distraught man has to sit down when the bodies of a family of four are to be driven away by the hearse. Photo: Julia Kirsebom Thommessen / news Friends and family throw themselves on the ground in grief while the blankets with the family are carried away. A shattered man is helped up by policemen, while rescue teams try to cordon off the area, in case an aftershock causes the building masses to hit passers-by. Here, too, there are people who believe the authorities have not done enough to save lives. – There are not enough people, there is not enough equipment, and there is not enough being done, says Mehmet Emin, a volunteer from Gaziantep who has been in Islahiye since Monday. Lost 30 relatives Davut Kaya and his family live in a tent they share with two other families. The small tent camp on the outskirts of the city has become a temporary home. 18 people sleep in the cold tent. A scar on his forehead and a limp walk testify to what Davut Kaya has been through. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news Just a few days ago, he sent the children out through the balcony on the second floor, and climbed out of the collapsed apartment complex. The limping gait testifies to what he has been through. – Half this area is destroyed. How could they save anyone, he asks. Kaya also estimates that half of the city’s inhabitants are dead. Among them are 30 of his relatives. Mother and grandmother peer in while the children sleep in the tent. Photo: Julia thommessen / news In the new building they lived in, few others survived. – This was an expensive house. It was built just three years ago. I don’t blame the authorities for the slow rescue operation, because the roads were blocked. But I blame those who let the contractors build, he says. Large quantities of food and bread have arrived in Islahiye on Friday. A man prays on the road outside Islahiye. Several people live in freezing tents set up on the outskirts of the town. On Friday, the Turkish newspaper Sabah and Euronews Turkey reported that a contractor who built homes in hard-hit Hatay was arrested on his way to Montenegro. Kaya says the authorities’ response in the aftermath of the earthquake is important for his confidence in them. And who he will vote for at the next election. – Public buildings were not badly damaged. So when the authorities build, they do it properly. But then they allow contractors to do it this way.
ttn-69
– We live in the earthquake all the time – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
