They need us now more than ever!

ANTAKYA was the place where I felt most free, where I got lost in its streets, where I encountered a new surprise every time I visited, where I said "I must have been from here" if there is such a thing as a "past life," where I was influenced by its ancient wisdom, where I collected very precious friends, and where I said I would definitely live one day in the future!

I spent New Year's Eve 2022 in Antakya, at my friends' house in the Sümerler neighborhood, and while watching the fireworks launched from the rooftops, I had wished to be "cheerful and happy in any situation" just like the people of Antakya.

Ten months have passed since the disaster that started suddenly in the second month of 2023, on the night the February break ended, and accelerated as if it would never end, twisting and tearing down walls, and leveling the ancient city in 65 seconds.

The lives that were turned upside down in one night, the nameless cemeteries stretching for kilometers, where finding the bodies of loved ones in one piece was considered a reason for gratitude, where people died screaming under the rubble because help could not arrive for three days, where they were buried without being wrapped in shrouds,

Turkey has forgotten!

In official records, the number of our citizens who died in the February 6 earthquake was registered as 50 thousand 783. But we all know that the number of people we lost in the great destruction is much higher. The information that no signal could be received from 300 thousand GSM subscribers after the earthquake and that 183 thousand credit cards were never used already told the truth by itself.

Following the great destruction, nearly 20 thousand of our people lost either an arm or a leg. For the first time, Turkey experienced such a high number of "limb loss" cases. There hasn't even been a statistical study conducted regarding our people who have been amputated and will spend the rest of their lives with disabilities.

Turkey has forgotten!

But the work to declare people's destroyed homes as "reserve areas" was done quickly, and last week, hundreds of earthquake survivors learned through a message sent to their phones that their homes and shops had been transferred to the Treasury.

Slow enough to be late in saving lives, fast enough to seize property!

Fast enough to collect millions of dollars for a donation campaign, but slow enough to delay the aid from reaching its destination,

Slow enough not to be able to build a fully equipped hospital in 10 months, but fast enough to declare high-rent areas as "reserve building areas" and put them into practice by ministerial decree.

The people of the ancient city, who have lost their families, homes, livelihoods, and city, are resisting to protect their homeland. They are struggling to emerge from the disaster that befell them, but uncertainties stand before them like a wall. 10 months have passed. Their most basic needs are still not being met. Even experiencing their grief feels like a luxury to them. Every time it rains or a storm breaks out, I feel ashamed because I am under my warm quilt.

I am ashamed, because Turkey has forgotten!

They want to trust.

They are waiting in tents and containers without knowing how many more seasons they will spend there.

To stand up again,

they are resisting.

For the new Antakya they will build with their hard work and determination,

with its multi-religious, multi-colored, and diverse table,

where the demographic structure is preserved and nourished by its ancient culture for their children, the people of Antakya need us now more than ever.