when the earth swallows your home, metal, fabric and decommissioned ships

On February 6th 2023, the earth moved for 85 seconds and over 50,000 people died, trapped under the rubble of their homes. Many of those left their bed when the earthquake happened around 4:15AM never returned, those who did had to leave again around 1:24PM when the earth shook again. Approximately 1.5 million people were left homeless and over 2 million displaced.

In the beginning, people took shelter in large common spaces, high schools, gyms, and municipal buildings. Large buildings whose structural efficacy wasn't in question. Soon after, tents started to pop up. Easy to transport and set up, a day after the earthquake large numbers of tent towns were being planned and constructed. The harsh winter conditions in some of the regions affected by the earthquake made the necessity for more stable temporary shelters urgent.

Known among the locals as container towns, these constructed neighborhoods have been ubiquitous elements of the landscape in the last year. Meant to be a temporary shelter for recently displaced people, the slow reconstruction efforts have made them incredibly prevalent in the landscape around cities affected by the earthquake.

Container towns have become the new norm for a lot of earthquake survivors. Surrounding cities or constructed on empty land, container towns are each sponsored by different cities or NGOs. Some big enough to house 10 thousand people, the towns are fenced off areas with high security and limited entry. In Antakya, one such a town was donated by the Qatari government and includes containers used in the Olympic villages in 2023. Seven months in their presences have become so constant that traffic circles will include big container town names next to landmarks.

In Fall 2023, just before the winter, around half a million earthquake survivors were still housed in temporary container towns and new container towns were still being built. The containers are small and life is not pleasant especially for large families, no privacy and a lack of usual comforts leaves residents wanting. However the structures, which can be insulated and outfitted with heating and cooling systems, are a large improvement over tents and offer people the illusion of normalcy, if only temporary.

Despite the large number of container towns in the areas, there are still a number of people waiting for their chance to get a more robust temporary housing. Tents cities still exist in Antakya, a city with a large Syrian refugee population due to its proximity to the border close to the Syrian border. Turkish citizens have been prioritized in their access to temporary shelters since the beginning of the earthquake. Residents of tent cities that are still around have mentioned that some NGOs have swung by to ask for their information, names and phone numbers so they could be put on a waiting list but for months now they have not heard back. Their tents are outfitted with basic necessities, some even include washers, but each rainfall makes life a little bit harder.

An hour's drive away from Antakya, through the plains of Amik valley and the winding roads passing the devastated cities of the Nur Mountains, lies Iskenderun, a small port city. Since the earthquake, its port has been flooding with every tide and constant demolishing and construction has made the once enjoyable strolls of the seaside boardwalk a labyrinth. Towering over the local fishermen’s harbor, on the other side of the theme park, float two large ships: Suheyla Sultan and Rauf Bey. Named after the founders of Karadeniz Holding, the Turkish energy company operating the ships, they house almost 1500 survivors of the earthquake. 

Initially the Lifeship Suheyla Sultan was retrofitted to be used for the eventual Istanbul earthquake. It houses 950 people, survivors of the earthquake, in 166 rooms dorm style, with 12 people per room, or family style with 4-6 family members sharing a room. The ship has a soccer field, two children’s playgrounds, kindergarten, a clinic, kitchens and educational and recreational centers. In the ship’s educational centers, a variety of classes are provided by volunteers, cosmetics and business training as well as craft and artisanal workshops. 

Residents seem to be thankful to have their needs be taken care of but full of pain as to what they’ve left behind. On the soccer field atop the ship, they’ve had yoga classes and watched as the buildings across from the road have been demolished one by one. “Here we have better views, the sea, our boat, harbor, amusement park, and cityscapes are all so beautiful. We’ve forgotten our home, and buried it deep inside ourselves.” says Nadir Sahin, a retired teacher who’s one of over 200 people who’ve been on Suheyla Sultan since it first started operations in April 2023. 

It takes a village to run the ships. Sixty employees, locals to Iskenderun and residents of the ships, take care of the day to day of the ship, from cleaning to laundry. The ships are managed by former or retired army personnel who’ve adopted rigid managerial styles they’re accustomed to into something more individualized and fluid to reflect the ever evolving aspect of the situation. The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey puts out two meals a day for those staying and working on the ship. The meals are made on site in a tent behind the cafeteria and are chosen according to available products. Breakfast, mid afternoon and late night snacks are prepared and provided aboard the ships. Kahvedunyasi, one of Turkey’s biggest coffee shop chains, sponsors the coffee bar on both ships. Hot drinks like tea and coffee, as well as hot chocolate, sahlep and snacks are available for free. “It became a house for the houseless, a home for the homeless, a kitchen for the hungry” says Ertan Baslak, Lifeship Suheyla Sultan’s no nonsense manager.

On February 6th, the Anatolian high school of Onur Okten suffered heavy damage and was demolished in October. 12 students and teachers of the school died in their homes. 

On Rauf Bey, 550 high school students and teachers from the high school now reside which functions as a boarding school where the students get to go home during the weekends. The ship has the capacity to house 1200 students in dormitories in the former two-level parking decks divided into boys and girls quarters. Each cubicle has 4 beds and a closet, with two students sharing each cubicle. Faculty and employees stay in containers located in, on top, or outside the ship near the cafeteria.

Lifeship Rauf Bey is a former Irish high speed ferry that was decommissioned in 2014. It was still being retrofitted when the earthquake happened and work continued even as it was en route to Iskenderun. Signs from the cruise are still around, the product galleys have been turned into classrooms for the younger kids while the quieter areas of the old trucker lounges at the front of the deck are reserved for the senior’s. There are several designated areas for the kids and teachers to hang out in, some recreational spaces like a movie theater, ping pong tables, arcade games as well as a small library and board game area.  Onur Okten is an Anatolian high school which is home to high achieving students due to their high barrier of entry through standardized tests and the teens seem to mainly prefer studying and hanging out together reflecting the real fervent passion on the part of the administration of the ship for the kids to succeed. Real thought and care is given to making sure the kids have everything they need to be able to study for the duration of their time on the ship.

Tents and containers are common sites in disaster areas, but out of the box ideas like retrofitted cruise ships offer survivors a chance to rebuild on floating, but stable grounds. Zeynep Sahin, the ship’s educational administrator says of living on the ship “Actually, we don’t live like we’re on a ship. We accepted it as a house, as a school, as a home”.

A more permanent future still looks out of reach for a lot of people. Only a month after the earthquake, TOKI, Turkey’s housing agency whose previous low income housing in the region has not seen any significant damage, started the ground breaking for “disaster homes” in several affected cities allocated for survivors of the earthquake. The houses are being sold on a payment plan to earthquake survivors, with the payments being deferred for the first 2 years. While the plan seems to be to encourage construction in city centers most of the current TOKI constructions have been on the city outskirts which can leave people feeling isolated. The allocation of apartments can leave people without their preexisting social structures to provide support and expropriate valuable land for locals. Owners whose houses were destroyed are eligible to get new housing but those who rented, the vast majority of those homeless currently, have to contend with soaring rents due to a lessened housing stock. With the earthquake speeding up demographic migration towards Western urban centers, fear of cultural losses are felt. 

Rauf Bey and Suheyla Sultan, the two ships docked at Iskenderun will seize operations in June of 2024. Leaving many of the ships' residents unsure about the future.