The village of Demirkopru in Turkey’s countryside was completely destroyed by the February 6 earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey.
The village of a thousand people was literally split in two by the earthquake. On February 6th, in a few seconds, a fault several meters deep engulfed the paved road, stables and peasant houses of Demirkopru, in the heart of the Turkish countryside.
Maher and his family escaped through the window. “Our house collapsed during the first tremor. On the second, it moved ten meters further. The worst was when it started to slide.” The bed of the river that crosses the village shifted and the water tumbled into the fault, causing a landslide.
ruined peasants
“Our homes drowned in the river,” Maher continues. And the country over there is completely submerged by the earthquake, the farmers are ruined.
“We built our houses here without really knowing that we were on the seismic fault,” explains the village mayor, Hussein Shahad. So it can also be a little bit our fault.”
“Everything was devastated.”
Hussein Shahad, Mayor of Demirkopru
at franceinfo
Its citizens receive an initial state aid: 500 euros per family. Then 250 euros a month for a year, a drop in the bucket compared to the extent of the destruction. “I have no money, but Papa Erdogan, he will give me something and I will be able to rebuild, ironically Ilhan, a farmer from the village. He gives speeches, so he’ll give us money, and I’ll go renovate my house. He is like that, Erdogan!”
At the end of the village, the community cemetery has been devastated. Some graves are cut in two, swallowed up by the fault. In an alley that fought back, a woman is crying on her knees on a mound of earth: her 19-year-old daughter died in the earthquake. She was five months pregnant.