The editor from the Turkish section of Radio Bulgaria Sevda Dukkanci and Maria Petrova from BNR's Horizon national news channel spent four days in the region and met both with representatives of the local government and humanitarian organizations, as well as with survivors of the earthquake.‎

According to data from the Turkish Ministry of Interior, 53,537 people lost their lives in the earthquakes that devastated 11 provinces in southeastern Turkey on February 6 last year. Over 14 million people are directly affected by the disaster. Hatay is the most affected province with 24,000 victims, and another 8,000 died in neighboring Syria.‎

After the sign of the city of Hatay my hope to see at least a part of my idea of the Cradle of Civilizations melts away. The disappointment is huge when, instead of my long-dreamed-of visit to Hatay - Antakya before the earthquakes, we find a city in the apocalypse. The destruction stretches far beyond the eye. Although construction of new residential buildings has begun, Hatay is currently a city of containers for temporary accommodation.‎

The deputy head of AFAD - the Turkish government disaster management agency for the region of Hatay, Tamer Bayındır, tells more about the scale of the problem:

"This is the "disaster of the century". We have experienced enormous devastation, we have lost more than 50 thousand people. Our pain is indescribable. 24 thousand of the victims are from this area. When we talk about a tragedy on such a scale, our activity and responsibilities are huge", says Bayındır, whose service is responsible for the organization of temporary accommodation. "Currently, there are 185 container camps in which 215 thousand of our fellow citizens live. We have approximately 70 thousand containers intended for living. We give vouchers for food to socially weak families. Every day we provide 25 gallons of drinking water to people who live in containers," says Tanner Byander.‎

The "Heroes of the AFAD Rescue Teams" today provide social, household, health, educational care for the victims. "Bulgarian colleagues and volunteers were one of the first international teams to come to the rescue," Bayındır said and specifically asked to mention in the report that he has Bulgarian roots.‎

"My family are emigrants from Bulgaria. My grandparents came to Turkey from Svishtov. My mission in Hatay is a matter of great pride. They came to help from many countries, but the search and rescue and humanitarian aid from Bulgaria was very special to me." ‎

Our meeting with the mayor of a large municipality of Hatay,  Lütfü Savaş, also begins with a casual conversation in which he says "I am a Bulgarian son-in-law. My wife's family came here from Kardzhali" and 2,000 kilometers from Sofia, he gives us the feeling that "distances are only geography, and the world is one big family."‎

"My wife and I have been living in a container for 11 months. She is a professor of medicine at the university, but neither of us has for a moment regretted the conditions we are in or the fact that we live in a container. We decided to live like everyone in Hatay lives to show empathy for their way of life. Hatay has been destroyed many times in history. It is perhaps one of the cities in the world that have most suffered from earthquakes. Our ancestors experienced similar horrors, and we will cope," emphasizes the mayor Lütfü Savaş.

He clearly remembers how from the third day after the earthquake, various international institutions, foundations, non-governmental organizations, volunteers and various countries, including Bulgaria, began to provide aid.

"This aid showed us the following: at the moment when people wondered whether individualism prevailed, whether the personal interfered with mutual aid, in Hatay, as well as in other regions of Turkey, affected by the earthquake, where people died and others lost everything, we saw that humanity has not died, but exists. This is the reason to discard pessimism, and we thank the Bulgarian people and the Bulgarian state for that," emphasized the mayor of Hatay.‎