Two new quakes that hit the province of Hatay in southern Turkey on Tuesday raised new concerns among its residents and urged them to seriously consider leaving the place forever without returning, with the strength of the last two earthquakes reaching 6.4 and 5.8 degrees, more than two weeks after the main earthquake that killed about 46 people. A thousand people in both Turkey and Syria, and the population is still in a state of fear and anticipation, especially given the occurrence of a total of 7242 tremors from February 6, with the expectation that they will increase. Around 20:00 local time near Antakya, which was heavily damaged mainly by the devastating main earthquake.
A new quake has killed 6 more people and wounded more than 300 on the Turkish side and at least 150 wounded in areas controlled by opposition groups in northwestern Syria, followed by a second earthquake of magnitude 5.8, according to the General Directorate for Combating Disasters. Disaster Management in Turkey (AFAD).
Recent earthquakes have claimed the lives of 42,310 people in Turkey and 3,688 people in Syria, or a total of 45,998 people, according to the latest data available in the two countries.
In Syria, Um Munir insists that only death can take her out of the apartment where her memories and her family live in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
Um Munir, 55, who lives alone on the fourth floor of a building in the Al-Masharka neighborhood, told AFP: “Nothing gets me out of the house but death (…) Then I’ll go straight to the graveyard.”
And she adds, while stones were scattered across her bed and the traditional wooden furniture in her room was damaged: “We are sons of fame and money, but the war has changed our conditions. We have not been displaced even in the harshest years of the war, and we will not be displaced now.”
Following the devastating earthquake on the sixth of this month that hit Syria and Turkey and killed nearly 46,000 people in those two countries, a nearby building completely collapsed.
Together with him, the rear facade of the seven-story building in which the woman lived collapsed.
The bedrooms in it have turned into open lonely balconies. The woman remains in her house, despite the awareness of the danger, and a number of her neighbors.
“The building is cracked and we know it could collapse, but we survived the war years relying on God and we trust that He will protect us,” she says, pulling a black coat over her. clothes to protect her from the cold, and communicates on a mobile phone with her two sons who live outside of Syria.
From the summer of 2012 to the end of 2016, the war unfolded in the city of Aleppo, the second largest city in Syria, which was considered the economic capital of the country. The city has witnessed a series of battles.
Government forces managed to regain control over the eastern regions where opposition groups were stationed after years of siege and bombing with the support of Russian aircraft.
The fighting did not force Um Munir to leave his house, which was previously not far from the line of contact, nor did the tremors that hit the street every time.
And she tells how she spends most of her time with her neighbor on the ground floor so they can get out immediately, and explains, “My neighbor can’t run, so I support her with my arms and we run as fast as we can. to the neighboring yard.
After a new earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on Monday evening, Ali Al-Bash (55) and his family left their home on the first floor of the same house.
“Last night I went out with my kids and my wife to the nearby garden and we returned after the quake was over,” he tells AFP, sitting on a small rock in a bedroom whose closet had fallen due to the collapse of the house. wall, explaining, “We’ve been like this since the earthquake.” First two weeks ago.
Although their building could collapse at any moment, Basch and his family do not hesitate to return to the ruined house to sleep.
“There is nowhere else to go,” he says, puffing on the smoke from his cigarette.
We are accustomed to danger, our house was on the line of contact throughout the war, and shells fell on us, and rockets hit our house.”
He adds: “After the earthquake, we live without a wall and do not directly notice the destruction,” referring to the wreckage of a nearby building that completely collapsed.