For the people of southeastern Türkiye, and especially children, this year’s Ramadan Bayram, also known as Eid al-Fitr, will be celebrated in tents and temporary shelters, after 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes on Feb. 6 caused massive damage and casualties.
In an iftar, a dinner to mark the breaking of the daily fast, in Kocaeli on Tuesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met earthquake victims and noted that since the beginning of Ramadan, they had repeatedly visited earthquake-hit cities, and said: "The number of residences and village houses under construction has reached 100,000. This figure will further increase in Şanlıurfa. We will not leave our brothers and sisters alone in Eid al-Fitr as well. We will deliver some of the constructed village houses, and we have almost completed debris removal works in all affected cities except Hatay, where work is scheduled to resume after the bayram. We witness that as debris removal nears completion and new buildings rise, hopes in the disaster-hit zone rise too.”
The three-daylong bayram holiday on the one hand boosted domestic tourism, with millions hitting the roads to popular tourist destinations in the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts; while on the other hand, thousands of families visited graves of their relatives on the eve of Eid al-Fitr at cemeteries in Hatay and Adana in the aftermath of the deadly disaster.
Ramadan 2023 has been an opportunity to exhibit solidarity with the victims of the deadly disaster, said Turkish scholar and President of Religious Affairs Ali Erbaş underlining the theme of this year’s Ramadan as “Ramadan and Solidarity” on March 21.
While Türkiye's top charity firm, the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay), helped approximately 19 million people in need with support packages of TL 2 billion ($105 million), under "This Ramadan we are united in grief" campaign, the organization continued to cater to the needs of disaster victims affected by the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes during Ramadan round-the-clock.
Besides the distribution of psychosocial support services and mobile health services, the organization ensured the provision of all necessary items for earthquake survivors in the quake-hit zone as well as those evacuated to different provinces of Türkiye.
Meals prepared by various nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were distributed across the region, including the soup kitchen set up in the Qatar-Türkiye container city established in Hatay's Antakya district.
While the intensity continues on the eve of Ramadan Bayram in the Historical Maraş Bazaar – built by Dulkadiroğlu Alaüddevle Bozkurt Bey in the 1500s with stone and wood, and consisting of 495 shops – citizens expressed great enthusiasm in the bazaar and received treats such as candies, cologne and chocolates. They also shopped for Eid apparel and shoes here.
Spicemaker Yunus Emre Körmen said that they did not expect such intensity in the aftermath of the disaster. "Although not comparable with pre-quake days, we are pleased with the current crowd."
"Pain upon pain," said Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, while announcing police units imposing traffic curbs across the country. He also said, "Think about those who have had it worse, the thousands who lost families and loved ones. Let us be grateful for what we have and extend our hands to help those in need."
"It does not feel like bayram," said a mother who was seen placing Eid clothes and toys on her child's grave in earthquake-torn Malatya. Relatives of the deceased said, "The pain will remain, and we will never be able to be a part of such celebrations anymore."
