Abdurrahman Can, Başpınar (Küllüm) village leader, Adıyaman, Türkiye.
“I lost my daughter-in-law and my grandchild. I kept my grandchild’s body in the car for two days until we could finally find his mother’s body and bury them both. We didn’t even get a shroud. We wrapped them with a blanket. The hospitals were full of dead bodies.
I have four children, two girls and two boys. One of them lost his wife and child. Another one was able to get his child out of the rubble alive. All their houses are gone, there is nothing left. They couldn’t get anything out.
We paid a price, we lost lives, we lost a lot of property.
During the first days we were sleeping in our cars. Now we are staying in tents; we cannot go inside [our house].
There is a lot of fear. There are aftershocks a couple of times a day, every day. We still can’t even think clearly. We lost our sleeping patterns. We are starting to have family issues.
We need material and moral support. Everyone is stressed, but we are trying to recover. We are here as a family, trying to hold on to life. Now, at least we know that someone is listening to us.”