Two years on, survivors of Turkish earthquake still struggle with loss and hardship

In the earthquake zone, we have undertaken a massive reconstruction and revival effort within just two years, a scale that almost no country in the world could handle,

he further noted

By the end of the year, we will build a total of 453,000 housing units, ensuring that not a single citizen remains without a home or a workplace,

he added

From the very first day, we have stood united as a state and as a people, never withdrawing our support from the affected regions, even for a moment.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, reflecting on the resilience of the nation, wrote on X

We shall persist in our monumental endeavor of rebuilding and restoring, with diligence, determination and unwavering resolve, until our cities fully rise from the ashes,

he vowed

Many people are still living in container cities and they needed somewhere to go out. This place provides space for social gathering and healing through art and culture while the city gets back on its feet,

Boyaci said

We're not going to paint the earthquake because we don't want to remember it,

he said, his gloved hands splattered with acrylic paint

He didn't let go of his daughter's hand until the morning even though she'd died. That affected me very, very deeply because I also lost my mother and brother,

Mansuroglu told AFP

During the earthquake, many of the city's cultural and social venues were reduced to rubble,

explained Hakan Boyaci, head of Hatay's cultural association

I don't know who they are but I 'know' every single one of them,

said artist Emel Genc 43, who says she wept as she added each face

We lost an entire city,

said Genc, who uses objects salvaged from the ruins -- old photos, trinkets, fragments of concrete -- in her art, which expresses "the utter emptiness and despair of losing absolutely everything".

Art is a way of documenting history,

said Mehmet Ercin, a 27-year-old graffiti artist who iss being paid to paint scenes showing the city's rich history

The main idea was to bring back the artists, who are the memory of the city. You can rebuild homes and buildings but that alone won't put a city back on its feet,

he told AFP

When I put people's memories into those frames with all that emptiness and despair, they see their own lives. There is sadness but also happiness that someone is trying to keep those memories alive,

she told AFP

Whenever I enter a room, the first place I look is the ceiling: would it hold up in an earthquake, or would I be trapped under the rubble

said Sema Genc, whose home in Antakya collapsed on top of her, killing her entire family

Although two years have passed, we are still hurting. It still feels like it did on that first day. That hasn’t changed,

survivor Emine Albayrak, 25 told AFP in Antakya, the site of the ancient city of Antioch, which lost 90 percent of its buildings

This was not an earthquake, this was a massacre!”

they chanted, their voices echoing eerily through the night

Two years have passed, but it still feels like yesterday for me,

admitted Humeysa Bagriyanik, who was 16 when the earthquake hit

Recep Tayyip Erdoğanpresident

We will continue our rebuilding and restoration efforts with hard work, sweat, patience and an iron will until our cities are back on their feet,

said Erdogan who is expected to attend a remembrance ceremony in Adiyaman, a province that lost over 8,000 people, later in the day

We will not forget, we will not forgive. We will hold them accountable!”

Alongside the sobbing and grief there was also anger as people walked through the city centre, with demonstrators carrying a huge banner reading

I feel like a stranger in my hometown now. Our city was razed to the ground and now I don’t recognise anything,

she said of the massive rebuilding effort in Antakya, which like everywhere across the quake zone, has been transformed into one massive construction site