Turkey’s quake-displaced people line up in sub-zero temperatures in Gaziantep to receive a hot meal courtesy of a wave of solidarity from restaurants in the southern city.
“The queues are endless but the restaurants have done much more than the government,” said one of the displaced, Ajde Gunes.
At the Imam Cagdas restaurant, renowned in Gaziantep for its Alinazik, a delicious combination of smoked and grilled eggplant puree mixed with yogurt and covered with a lamb stew, some 4,000 dishes have been distributed free of charge since the earthquake that struck more than 28,000 dead in Turkey and Syria.
“We cook dishes that are easy to prepare, easy to serve and good for resisting the cold, such as pasta and soups in the morning,” explains Burhan Cagdas, the owner’s son.
Every day the restaurant prepares four or five different dishes. “If we don’t have enough ingredients, other restaurants provide them. They know it’s about helping people who are in need,” he continues.
Some 2,000 people died in the earthquake in Gaziantep, located near the epicenter, while tens of thousands of residents had to leave their apartments, now considered dangerous.
The restaurant Imam Cagdas is no longer able, for lack of sufficient ingredients, to offer the dishes that made its reputation, but the Turkish stew or tava – tomatoes, onions, meat and spices – saves the day.
“Our staff find themselves in an impossible situation, underlines Cagdas. They have victims within their own families and their houses have been destroyed”. The family of Burhan Cagdas himself has been sleeping in cars since the earthquake that happened on February 6.
But the wave of solidarity is only stronger. “We want to help,” he sums up.
Other restaurants and cafes in Gaziantep have followed Imam Cagdas’ example.
Hundreds of displaced people line up every lunchtime in front of Firino, a trendy café located at the foot of the town’s castle, whose towers collapsed during the earthquake.
At the Meshur Kalealti restaurant, also located in the tourist district of Gaziantep, some 3,000 soups are offered daily with bread. “We will continue as long as the crisis is there,” said its manager, who is also called Burhan. “Even if it has to last for weeks”.
Even the little kebabs got into it. “We offer 200 kebabs a day,” proudly says Hidir Nemasek, who runs a take-out kebab shop with his wife in the Sahinbey district.
At the Parc du Festival, where whole families spend the night in the cold, the homeless are queuing up to receive food. Cities across the country dispatched trucks full of food and water to quake-affected areas.
“I queue here once a day but for dinner with my children we are looking for a restaurant: the dishes offered there are much better,” said Deniz Erdoglu, who lives in a tent with his wife and four children.
Some also sell their livestock in order to be able to come to the aid of the displaced. Sarigul Kacan, a 70-year-old woman from the eastern province of Kars, sold her cow for 13,000 Turkish liras (650 euros) to send the money to earthquake victims, Turkish media reported.
Another retiree, Nazime Kilic, victim of the 1983 earthquake in the province of Erzurum (east), sold her bull for 23,000 liras (1,145 euros). “I have eight children. I tell them: help as much as you can,” she said, according to local media.
12/02/2023 08:48:11 – Gaziantep (Turquie) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
