Turks who lost everything in earthquake seeking shelter in the north

Earthquake victims from Turkey continue to arrive to the north to find refuge in relatives or friends staying in the island, Turkish Cypriot media reported on Saturday.

With their house destroyed from the two large earthquakes that hit southern Turkey on February 6, many feel they are left without any other choice than to relocate to the north of the island.

“We were forced to leave and come,” many earthquake victims from different parts of Turkey told Yeni Duzen, which wrote the majority are coming by boat and concern children and women.

They left with what they found of their belongings in the rubble, some perhaps milk for their child, others a blanket.

In its lead story today, the Turkish Cypriot newspaper reports that earthquake victims were still heading for the north from Adiyaman, Hatay and Kahramanmaras, to find family members and relatives living here.

“We went to bed at night, we had everything, we got up in the morning and we had nothing anymore,” said a father who arrived in the north.

According to the newspaper, people wish to return back to Turkey once the situation allows it.

Some earthquake victims from Antakya, one of the places where the earthquake was felt most strongly, have no relatives in the north and are left without a job, house or car. These people expressed the wish that the ‘TRNC’ would support them.

According to the report, the earthquake victims from Turkey have a written document signed and stamped by the Disaster and Emergency Response Agency authorities and the commander of their province.

This document states that their house was rendered uninhabitable due to the destruction caused by the earthquake on February 6 and includes their personal information.

The “earthquake certificate” presented upon entering the northern part of the island covers a 90-day period of stay under normal circumstances.

But Yeni Duzen noted that this permit is expected to be extended for six months for those coming from Turkey’s 11 earthquake-affected provinces. No official statement has yet been made on the matter.