between anguish and impatience, the inhabitants of Gaziantep await the green light from the experts to return to their homes

In the city center of Ganziantep, bruised by the earthquake of February 6, 2023, Jamal returns to his concierge box in a building. Behind him, a dark band crosses the wall. However, the old man is not worried: “It’s just small cracks, but it doesn’t matter. The building is in good condition, it’s very solid, because it’s concrete here. There’s no problem.”

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Despite slight aftershocks, residents have returned to their apartments since the earthquake. With some constraints for Abdulrahman. “The water has started to come back and for the gas, this has been the case since yesterday for the buildings that have been checked”. In the city of two million inhabitants, there are not enough building experts compared to the quantity of buildings affected and the increasingly pressing demand of the inhabitants to return to their homes.

Experts under pressure after numerous arrests

If many inhabitants fear these controls, however, today they no longer have places to go. Manal thus waited anxiously for these experts before being able to find her accommodation. “It was risky, but today they came and everything was settledshe explains. Well, it only lasted a quarter of an hour, it was very fast, but they were 100% sure. It’s not in their interest to lie.”

“If they lie to people and another drama happens, they will be in a very bad situation.”

Manal, a resident of Gaziantep

at franceinfo

The experts today have a lot of pressure. After the earthquake, many promoters were arrested by the authorities. They were accused of failing to meet anti-seismic standards. A hundred investigations have been opened in Turkey.

Across the country, hundreds of thousands of homeless people still face hunger and cold. According to the Turkish government, 1.2 million people have been housed in student residences, more than 206,000 tents have been erected and 400,000 victims evacuated from the devastated areas.