'It is enough; are we not citizens of this country?'

Click to read the report in Turkish / Kurdish

Some say, "We gave dry bread only to children," and some say, "There is no coordination." 

Citizens told bianet what they have lived through in Adıyaman which is one of the provinces worst affected by the two deadly earthquakes centered in Maraş, that struck southeastern Türkiye on February 6. 

Hanım Şahin is 80 years old. She says they stayed alive eating snow and sugar.

"For the first two nights, we did not even have this tent. We melted snow, there was some sugar. We put the sugar in it and also dry bread. We gave this to the children." 

"Nobody should call this fate"

The villagers in the Aksu village where 11 people lost their lives told bianet that they rented a digger to take out the dead bodies and to bury their people. "Nobody but volunteers brought aid here," they said. 

We pulled out our dead from under the wreckage, they started to smell. We brought a digger with our own means, opened the road, and buried our dead. Can such a great state not send a digger here? We pay taxes to this state. We fought for this state, we did our military service. But this is not our fate, nobody should call this fate." 

"No coordination"

Aksu villagers set up a tent themselves in the village without electricity and they say that 60 people are now staying in this tent. 

They also complain that there is no coordination in the aid being sent. 

"We had not two but four earthquakes"

Aksu village is located between two mountains. They are struggling with floods on the one side, and with snowslides and earthquakes on the other side. 

The villagers say, "Türkiye had two earthquakes. We had four."

"It rains and we are afraid of a flood, it snows and we are afraid of a snowslide, there is an earthquake and we are afraid of the rocks. It is enough! Are we not citizens of this country?" they say.  

Video: Roza Yiğit/bianet

(RY/EMK)