In Turkey, Historic City of Three Religions in Ruins After EarthquakeExBulletin

We take a tour of Antakya, Turkey, a city that has played an important role in Jewish, Christian and Islamic history. It was destroyed by the recent earthquake.

Scott Simon, Host:

Known in ancient times as Antakya, the Turkish city of Antakya has been at the crossroads of civilizations for centuries and a modern destination for tourism. But it was destroyed by an earthquake this month. NPR’s Daniel Estrin went to see what was left of the city, and found destruction, but also perseverance. And this caution, his report contains some disturbing descriptions.

DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: We start by walking down the main street of the historic center of Antakya to learn about its distant past.

(sound as the car passes)

Estrin: Our tour guide says this was an ancient Roman road 2,000 years ago. He says that it was the first lighted road in the world, on which there were candles on poles. And now it’s a complete disaster.

(sound synchronized with siren)

Estrin: There are eight trucks driving across the road. We have rubble and stones everywhere. There are soldiers here.

Yusuf Kocaoglu: On the left, you will see the Synagogue of the Jews, the Jewish People.

Estrin: Our guide Yusuf Kocaoglu used to love to show tourists his old city, but after the earthquake, he lives in a tent. We hired him to give us the tour he didn’t want to give – a ghost town tour.

Kocaoglu: This is the first place in Antakya where Jews immigrated. This is one of the oldest chapels for them.

Estrin: The synagogue is still standing, but after the earthquake, the ancient Torah scrolls were taken out of the city for safekeeping. The city’s Jewish community dates back more than 2,000 years. Recently, only about ten remained. And after the earthquake, they all left. The leader of the Jewish community, Saul Gnudioglu, was killed in the earthquake.

Kocaoglu: He was really hospitable. He loves helping people. He loved helping people.

Estrin: If we were here before the earthquake and we were knocking on doors…

Kocaoglu: Yes, he will open it.

Estrin: …from the synagogue, he’ll be the one here.

Kocaoglu: Yes, he will. Yes. Let’s go now to the city center and walk there too.

Estrin: We come to the facade of the historic Orthodox Church, which is now a pile of wire and stones.

Kocaoglu: This was one of the most important churches in Christian history.

Istrin: Ancient Antioch was the third largest city in the Roman Empire, after Rome and Alexandria. Tradition says that the Apostle Peter brought Christianity to the city in 47 AD. The New Testament says that here Christians were first called Christians.

Hello. glad to meet you.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking in a language other than English).

Coca-Cola: Nice to meet you, sir.

Estrin: A Protestant church collapsed. We met the Korean pastor, Jacob Chang, as he had just held Sunday Mass outside the ruins. One worshiper is still missing after the earthquake.

YAKUP CHANG: It’s so hard. Lean on God. But in this case, how do I say? Can I say pray to God or help us or be together, be with them and cherish them? Can i do something more? Just lean on each other, stick together. This is what I must do.

Estrin: It’s beautiful.

Chang: Yes.

Estrin: Thank you for speaking to us.

Chang: You’re welcome. Thank you for listening.

Kocaoglu: Let’s go to another point with you.

Estrin: We visit a historic mosque with a long history – Habib Al-Najjar.

Kocağlu: This is the main entrance to the mosque. The minaret used to be here, but now it has collapsed. There was a dome here. As far as I can see, it also collapsed.

Estrin: Like all ancient religious sites that have been damaged, it is covered with a black sign warning people not to enter.

Kocaoglu: Let’s put a safe place, in fact, the same place here.

Estrin: According to tradition, the mosque was named after the early converts to Christianity.

Kocaglo: Habib al-Najjar was a man from the Roman era. When Petros and…

Estrin: Peter.

Kokoglu: When Peter came here with his friends, he met them.

Estrin: Our guide is an Alevi Muslim – part of the city’s landscape of religions, ethnicities, and languages ​​that makes Antakya so unique. Or at least it was before the earthquake. Now there is no longer a soul living in the central part of the city. Bodies are still rotting under the rubble. All survivors have survived.

(Sound synchronized with the creaking of a stone under the skin)

Estrin: We come to a pile of rubble that was once one of our guide’s favorite streets, full of shops and bars.

Kocaoglu: The street was beautiful and crowded and there are a lot of flowers on your right and left.

Estrin: Turn around. This is the first time that…

Kocaoglu: Yes.

Estrin: …I cried on our tour. What about that made you emotional?

Kocaoglu: I had a lot of good memories here. That’s why – I’m sorry. Only I didn’t want to look at them and see them inside – as if they were destroyed. This is the heart of Antakya. We had a lot of memories here with my friends, with my guests from different countries. their ticket. for this reason.

Estrin: We climbed the hills of the wreckage and found one of his haunts, the Pasha Restaurant, cut in the middle.

(SOUNDBITE WITH BOTTLES SUPPLIES)

Estrin: The owner, Orhan Oyanc, salvages beer from the ruins and gives our guide a bottle.

ORHAN UYANIK: (spoke in a language other than English).

Estrin: It says, “A couple here recently got engaged.”

UYANIK: (spoke a language other than English).

Estrin: “I don’t even know if they survived the earthquake.”

(audio synced to archived recording)

Civilizations of Antioch: (singing in a language other than English).

Estrin: Then he played a video for us on his phone. It is a modern show of the beloved civilizations choir of Antakya, singers of different religions and ethnicities.

(audio synced to archived recording)

Civilizations of Antioch: (singing in a language other than English).

Estrin: Who knows how many of them survived the earthquake?

Kocaoglu: Even if people say that Antakya is gone. Antakya completely collapsed, I don’t think so.

Estrin: Despite the grief, our guide Yusuf Kocaoglu, and everyone we met along the way, are committed to rebuilding the historic sites in the city that fell and rebuilt after earthquakes in the past. This place that has many names – Antakya, Antakya, and Hatay – has revived itself again and again over the centuries.

Kocaoglu: Hatay has been destroyed by earthquakes six or seven times. Maybe this is the eighth. It doesn’t matter. we are here. We will try to do something for our city again and again. Maybe it will take a long time. We don’t care.

Estrin: This date provides him with some comfort, despite the catastrophic loss all around us.

Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Antakya, Turkey.

Simon: This story was produced by NPR’s Samantha Balaban.

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