Commemoration of earthquake victims in the destroyed church of Antakya for the first time in 3 years

Victims of the devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey on February 6, 2023, were commemorated at the partially destroyed Greek Orthodox Church of Antakya on Friday, in the first religious mass held at the site since the disaster, Deken news website reported.

The church, located in the Antakya district of central Hatay, was severely damaged in the earthquakes that killed more than 53,000 people in Türkiye and 6,000 others in neighboring Syria.

Large portions of the church walls collapsed, and the historic structure has remained largely unusable since the disaster.

The memorial service was presided over by priests Jan Deluller and Dimitri Dugom and included prayers for those who lost their lives in the earthquakes. Some attendees were seen shedding tears during the ceremony.

Fadi Harijel, head of the Greek Orthodox Church Foundation in Antakya, said the community was determined to rebuild the church, which he described as a symbol of the city.

“The last Holy Mass held here was on February 5, 2023, that is, just one day before the earthquake,” Horigil said. “Three years have passed, and today, for the first time, we are holding a memorial service in this place for those who attended that final service.”

He said the earthquake left deep scars in the community. He said: “Every life we ​​lost was a mother, father, child, brother, friend or neighbour. We cannot express our grief in words, but their memory will remain alive in our hearts.”

The February 6 earthquakes, which were centered in the Pazarcik and Elbeistan districts of Kahramanmaraş, had magnitudes of 7.8 and 7.5, and were among the deadliest disasters in Turkey’s modern history. In Antakya, a large part of the historic city center was destroyed.

Before the earthquakes, an estimated 10,000 Christians lived in Hatay province, a small portion of Türkiye’s population but one of the largest Christian communities in the country outside of Istanbul.

Dogum told AFP in December that the number of members of the Christian community in Antakya had decreased from about 350 families to less than 90 families since the earthquakes.

Antakya, surrounded by mountains stretching between the Mediterranean Sea and Türkiye’s border with Syria, was influenced by Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Persian, Arab and Ottoman rule over more than two millennia.

The city was briefly placed under a French mandate before becoming part of modern Türkiye in 1939.

Arabic-speaking Muslim and Christian communities lived for a long time side by side with Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Greeks and Jews.

It is now feared that this multicultural life – described by some residents as the “soul” of the city – could be at risk in the wake of the quakes.

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