'Daylight has not come' – I meet the victims of the horrific Türkiye earthquake who are still living bleak lives 20 months later

On February 6 last year, a devastating earthquake shook southern Türkiye, killing more than 53,000 mothers, daughters, fathers, and sons. A year and a half later, hundreds of thousands of people are still victims of the 7.8 magnitude monster that completely tore their world apart.

My grandfather and I drove from Anamur, our family's hometown, across the country to Hatay, a province whose population had dropped from 1.7 million to just 250,000. Exiting the highway into the city, more and more piles of rubble gradually appeared.

Building after building was folded into the ground

What were once people's homes are now huge piles of concrete and metal. There was so much devastation that it almost didn't look real, it looked like a movie set. But it was before our eyes. The streets where children played, the benches where teenagers talked and laughed, and the kitchens where grandmothers lovingly cooked for their families are gone forever.

Laundry is still hanging on the row of houses in Hatay

I was curious when I started seeing hundreds of rows of white containers – I quickly realized that these were temporary homes. More than 600,000 people still live in these small boxes. The miserable white camps that seemed to never end. I kept driving, but stopped when I saw a small town under a blue tarpaulin “roof”.

About 20 families lived there, spending their entire lives between four hanging bedsheets.

Yetter talked about her life now with her daughter and sister

I spoke to a girl called Nihal, who was 16 and dreamed of coming to England. She said she had only been there since she moved into a space no larger than three square meters with her mother, aunt and grandmother.

Her mother, Yetter, told me how their never-ending nightmare began when they were living in Antakya.

“We were in the house and the roof collapsed on top of us. It kept falling, and kept hitting us and hitting us, one after the other. We couldn't stand still but we couldn't get out. From beginning to end we were living it.

“I got hurt here,” she said, pointing to her face. “My daughter was beheaded.”

“We ran towards the door, but we couldn’t open it,” she said. “Our neighbors broke it off to get us out. That's how we managed to escape. It started to rain unbelievably hard. It was raining really hard and it was pitch dark.”

She watched as buildings collapsed around her.

“It was very bad, everyone was screaming. The high-rise buildings collapsed to the ground. Some people died, some people were injured. They were screaming ‘help me, save me’, but no one could help them. One cannot get close to the building because it might collapse.

“It was very cold and wet. The ground was still shaking. We had reached flat ground. The signal was out, our phones weren't working, and we couldn't reach anyone.

“One begins to think about one's relatives. We waited there for daylight, but it did not come. It felt like forever. It came at about 10 am the next day, and as soon as we got light we went to find our relatives.

“They were under the rubble.” However, he started crying.

“We lost them.”

Her sister put her arm around her.

They received a message from one of their relatives saying, “I am under the rubble, please come and save me,” but it did not reach them until it was too late.

Two of Yetter's nieces died along with their father and brother. One of her nieces survived, but her arms and feet had to be amputated.

“If I had gotten the letter sooner, maybe she would have gotten her feet wet,” Yeater said.

Plain rice and beans is all they eat every day for a year and a half, and their living conditions are “miserable.” Their future is bleak and without hope.

The Yeaters, like others who still live there, say money is so scarce they can't even find bottled water easily, but they can't bring themselves to leave the place they still call home.

In Türkiye, 37,066 buildings collapsed and more than 200,000 buildings were severely damaged. The rebuilding process will take years, people need money, supplies and psychological help, and many have never found their loved ones and cannot grieve.

Victims of the disaster are still in need of assistance and donations, which can be made using the links below:

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