ISTANBUL: Turkiye on Tuesday held pre-dawn vigils for the loss of over 50,000 people — and parts of entire cities — in the earthquake-prone country’s deadliest disaster of modern times.
Grieving Turks are still coming to terms with how a 7.8-magnitude earthquake could upturn the lives of millions of people in a matter of seconds while they are still asleep.
An updated toll released Friday showed that 53,537 people had died across eleven southeastern provinces officially designated as the disaster zone.
Earthquake Losses in Syria
The confirmed loss of 5,951 more lives in neighbouring Syria makes last year’s February 6 tremor one of the ten deadliest in the world in the past one hundred years.
Ancient cities such as Antakya have been effectively wiped off the map.
Others have gaping holes in place of apartment towers that toppled like houses of cards when the ground started to move at 4:17 am.
