A displaced Turkish family in Gaziantep talks about the run-off | Türkiye and Syria earthquake news

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GAZIANTEP, TURKEY – Turkey is preparing for a second round of voting to choose a president in two weeks, while still displaced people in tented settlements in quake-stricken areas say they had the “longest night” in the past two decades.

Crowded together, watching the election results live as they could — some looking nervously through their phones, others climaxing through an impromptu television station in a neighbourhood — thousands held their breath all night.

They did not imagine that the frantic wait would last any longer, until early evening the next day, when the need for a second ballot was finally confirmed.

More than three million people have been displaced in southeastern Turkey after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed more than 50,000 people on February 6.

In Gaziantep, where more than 3,000 people have died and thousands remain homeless, Ozlem Sozer, 39, her husband Abbas, 49, and their two daughters Fatma and Asel — aged 15 and seven months respectively — live in a tent provided by the aid agency. In Turkish disasters, “It reported”, the past three months. And as supporters of the government over the past few years, they say the earthquake changed their political views.

“We are now refugees in our own country. We feel like we haven’t had enough support during this time,” says Ozlem’s husband, sitting on the floor of his family’s tent.

On the same day the baby was born, Abbas lost his job as a bus driver in Turkey’s mounting economic crisis. Then the earthquake happened.

Their old home in the city’s Yokkaribayer district, part of an old suburban apartment complex, is too dangerous to return to. They tried to look for a new home, but the rent in town had skyrocketed and they couldn’t afford new furniture.

Unlike the majority of voters in the hardest-hit provinces such as Hatay or Kahramanmaras, the Suzers were able to cast their ballots. But they hoped to delay the election so that survivors like themselves could resettle fully.

“Our daily life is not normal right now, and we cannot think about our long-term future,” Abbas says. But still, early in the morning of May 14, they asked their neighbors to guard their tent while they were away and walked to the nearest polling station.

In the last election in 2018, they decided not to vote because they thought it wouldn’t matter. But the earthquake prompted them to leave. “I don’t think anything will change with the elections, because we have lost all hope for any politician, but change is required,” Ozlem says.

Regardless of the results, their greatest fear is the tent settlements being dismantled soon after the elections are over. So they hope the ballot will give them at least another two weeks of safety.

Although the earthquake was initially thought to be a game-changer in elections, the majority of survivors still voted for the current government in power, despite initial criticism of how it handled the crisis.

In the cool spring evening breeze in the city where the baklava was born, the Ozelims stayed up all night, fearful of an outbreak of violence at any time. Feeling exposed without a real home, outdoors in Masal Park in Gaziantep, they spent the darkest hours of the night holding each other.

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