If he’s back in power, I’ll leave the country,” Kaja said. Ibrahim Kaja, a 26-year-old voter who traveled in from Adana, sits in front of the house of a family member in Antakya on May 10.Ĭhildren's painted handprints adorn a piece of rubble from the February earthquake in Hatay Province, Turkey, on may 10, 2023.Ĭhildren’s painted handprints adorn a piece of rubble in Turkey’s Hatay province on May 10. Ibrahim Kaja, a 26-year-old man who travelled in from Adana to vote in the upcoming Turkish election, sits in front of the earthquake-damaged house of a family member in Antakya, Turkey on May 10. Kaja is adamant that if rescue teams had arrived earlier, four of his family members, including Hisamettin, could have been saved, and he largely blames their deaths on the government. The brother’s third child-another boy-lived but lost a leg. Kaja’s niece died immediately, but he managed to dig out his 12-year-old nephew, Hisamettin, from under the rubble three days after the earthquake, only to watch him die in the car on the way to the hospital. 6 quake, including his younger sister and older brother, who was living just below him in the same house his brother had a wife and three children. Kaja lost nine family members to the Feb. “We are angry, we are devastated, and we want political change,” said Ibrahim Kaja, a 26-year-old voter who traveled two hours from Adana back to Antakya, where his house lies in rubble. More than 23,000 people were killed in Hatay-the highest provincial death count out of the almost 60,000 overall fatalities-and some registered voters are still missing to this day. Up to 85 percent of the downtown either collapsed or will have to be demolished, according to the Turkish Chamber of Civil Engineers, and much of the infrastructure is out of commission: Many roads are closed, most shops remain shut, and bathroom facilities are scarce. They might get good news on Sunday, when the election results could be clear, or a little later if there is a runoff vote, but for now, in the provincial capital of Antakya, there’s little on offer but heartbreak. Now they are coming back, even if just for a day-and many say it’s explicitly to vote out Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Out of the roughly 1.1 million registered voters in the province, around 400,000 left when several earthquakes devastated the province in February. Read more of FP’s coverage of Turkey’s pivotal elections. ANTAKYA, Turkey-The only road heading into the center of Turkey’s southern Hatay province is already packed with traffic jams as people pour back in to vote in Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
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