The current state of the city of Kahramanmaraş is heartbreaking, six months after the Kahramanmaraş earthquake, which killed 50,783 people in Türkiye on February 6 and displaced 4.1 million people. The city was left with empty lots everywhere as more than 53,000 buildings were heavily damaged and more than 20,000 workplaces became unusable. The city center, where thousands of people used to live, has given its place to quiet squares and piles of rubble, and local shopkeepers are now trying to get back on their feet in prefabricated bazaars.
“We want our Kahramanmaraş to be revived as soon as possible and our marketplace to be rebuilt again. We want our old days to be restored. We want to stand up and return to our old lives and forget the moment of the earthquake,” said Yusuf Hekimoğlu, a shopkeeper.