Bilal Jawir finishes packing the family's belongings into the van, ready to leave Antakya, his city collapsed by the violent earthquake of February 6.
"We have no work, no life, how could we come back to live here?" he lets go. "It hurts my heart".
Bilal's house is still standing, but is it reliable enough to stay there? With his wife and two daughters, he found refuge under the orange trees that adjoin their property.
Like him, millions of people whose localities have been affected but whose homes have been spared are faced with this dilemma: should they try to return home or leave to settle elsewhere.
More than 44,000 people died in this disaster which hit southern Turkey and Syria.
"It's hard to leave, we have a lot of memories here, my daughters were born here, we got married here," sighs this construction worker, securing his load securely.
Bilal Jawir will go to his uncle Hadi, 63, in Adana, less than 200 km further north, spared by the earthquake of 7.8.
In the street, his neighbors are preparing to do the same. Adnan and his daughter Dilay load large bags of clothes onto the pickup.
"We have no idea what will happen to the house if it is destroyed," says Adnan, who refuses to give his full name.
Like the Jawir family, he refuses to speculate on the solidity of his building and the foundations.
Contemplating her kitchen, Dilay's mother laments over the broken glasses and crockery that litter the floor. "I have nothing left to save here," she said.
Awakened by the tremor that struck at 4:00 a.m., the family threw themselves outside in their pajamas. She will now move into an apartment in Mersin, on the coast, 270 kilometers from Antakya.
A street away, a white car has been completely flattened by falling buildings all around and finds itself buried under the rubble and the last remnants of daily life.
Amid the disaster, however, some do not lose their business acumen.
Thus, a lifting device driver, who came from the north of the city, told AFP that he had raised his rates to 75 euros per hour and charged 47 euros per mover and per truck, while his platform shape, hoisted up to the fifth floor, lowers a carpet, photo frames and a hand mixer.
"We have increased our prices because of the danger", justifies the entrepreneur who is careful not to give his name.
In the Old Town, 45-year-old optician Cuneyt Eroglu, whose family survived the earthquake, rummages through the chaos of his shop and tries to laugh it off.
"Madame Hacer, if you can hear me, your glasses are ready," he said, setting aside the bundles from the dust that shrouded the Ottoman-era stone building.
"We're going to stay and live here," he says, saying that getting his high school diploma back has given him real joy.
Unlike many other arteries, the street in front of his shop has been cleared of the collapsed walls and twisted concrete bars that cluttered it.
For the moment Mr. Eroglu and his family are living in a tent in a village near Antakya.
"Leaving is easy, but staying is important," he says. "I want to live here for the rest of my life."
"After all, this city has been destroyed seventeen times in its history, we will build it an eighteenth".
19/02/2023 13:25:12 Antakya (Turquie) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
