Along a busy road in Antakya, dozens of red balloons float above the ruins, the last offering to children who died in the February 6 earthquake that devastated southern Turkey.
“Here, three children died. They were one and a half, four and six years old,” says Ogun Sever Okur, designer of the project.
The effect is striking. The small fragile globes contrast with the monochrome gray of the mountain of rubble, once a recent beige building of nine floors. Three car wrecks mingle with the rubble, from which emerge mattresses here, appliances there and even an anorak adorned with hearts size 4 years old.
With a purple toy in the image of Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse and a pink scooter, these few objects remind us of these very short lives that were shattered.
“This is where I started, and then in the building behind it,” he continues.
A rose grower and photographer, he volunteered in the days following the earthquake, first in his hometown, Adana, before heading to Antakya, 200 km further south, one of the more devastated by the disaster.
Eight days after the quake, the nearly 40-year-old began tying balloons to the ruins of the now depopulated city of 400,000, where the noise of diggers and clouds of acrid dust dominate all forms of life.
More than 42,000 people died in Turkey as a result of the February 6 earthquake, nearly 46,000 including the victims of neighboring Syria.
Authorities did not say how many children died; Derya Yanik, the minister for the family, reported that 1,314 children, out of the 1,858 discovered alone after the quake, have been handed over to relatives.
Ogun Sever Okur, himself the father of two children, denies any “political” intention and insists on the “sentimental” side of his action.
Since 2020, with his “Association of Brother Ogun’s Children”, he has been helping poor children in Turkey to whom he provides toys, food, sometimes prostheses or care.
These balloons are for him “the last toy (that he could) offer” to young victims.
He estimates that he has already hung “a thousand red balloons (on) five or six buildings” in Antakya: symbols of “joy and love”, he says. But in Antakya, he admits, “it’s the first time a ball has made us cry.”
22/02/2023 10:28:46 – Antakya (Turquie) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
