Before and after of a neighborhood in Hatay: 85 percent of the buildings in the frame have been destroyed...

Almost one year has passed since the February 6 earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş. Thousands of buildings were destroyed in the Antakya district of Hatay, one of the cities most affected by the earthquake. As the rubble was cleared following the earthquake, the city virtually disappeared, and plots of land took the place of buildings.

Drone pilot Alper Şener filmed the same street in December 2023 to compare it with footage he had taken in 2019 on Uğur Mumcu Street in the Odabaşı neighborhood of the Antakya district. The footage recorded by drone pilot Şener showed that the street had virtually vanished after the earthquake. The images shared on social media once again laid bare the scale of the earthquake disaster.

Stating that he began recording Antakya in 2015 and continued his filming after the earthquake disaster to show the world the destruction caused by the quake, Şener said, "I started recording many streets and avenues of Antakya in 2015. I wanted to archive these and pass them on to future generations. At the same time, I started with the aim of highlighting Hatay's tourism and showing it to people who could not come to the region via social media. Many of the places I filmed after the earthquake were destroyed, leaving only rubble behind. I did not stop my filming after the earthquake. I continued to record Antakya because these were historical documents for us. The before and after situation of Antakya is very important. There are many people who do not know the scale of the destruction in Antakya. I wanted to make these known to different people as much as I could through social media. There are many people from abroad who follow and watch these videos. There are many people who want to learn about the destruction of the earthquake."

"85 PERCENT OF THE BUILDINGS IN MY FRAME WERE DESTROYED"

Stating that 85 percent of the buildings in the neighborhood he filmed in 2019 were gone after the earthquake, Şener said, "I wanted to make the destruction in Antakya known in my own way, and I continue to do so. These images deeply affected me and many other people. The place we are in is the Odabaşı neighborhood; in 2019, I had performed a drone flight starting right from Defne Hospital to the Teachers' Site (Öğretmenler Sitesi). In December 2023, I wanted to take another shot from the same point, and unfortunately, almost 85 percent of the buildings that entered my frame were destroyed. This is the situation in Antakya, not just in Odabaşı, but whichever neighborhood you go to."