Hatay

Türkiye's historic presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14 witnessed a high voter turnout at 86.2 percent.

The figure was barely below the 88.2 percent turnout in 2018 when Turkish voters headed to ballot boxes to elect the president and members of the parliament.

Many people are marking Mother's Day across the country, from somber quake survivors who lost their mothers, children or spouses, to polling officials in charge of the election.

In the earthquake zone where tens of thousands of people lost their lives in early February, Mother's Day was marked in a bitter mood this year.

Middle East Technical University's (ODTÜ) students, together with a prize-winning Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, have built a specially designed "paper log house" to be used in the earthquake zone.

ODTÜ's Architecture Department's students created the "Emergency Design Studio" after the twin earthquakes jolted the country's east in early February.

A woman who makes dolls of female heroes from Anatolia has added Halide Edip Adıvar, one of the important figures of the War of the Independence, to her collection for the 100th anniversary of the foundation of modern Türkiye.

Some 400 shops have started to operate in the historical Uzun Çarşı, one of the symbols of the quake-hit southern province of Hatay, within the scope of efforts to return to normal life.

At least 12 people have died and 31 got injured in a pile-up as multiple vehicles collided in the southern province of Hatay, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has announced.

The state of emergency declared after the earthquakes in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş will end on May 9, ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Deputy Chairman for Election Affairs Ali İhsan Yavuz said on May 4 in a televised interview.

Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, the so-called leader of the ISIL terror group, detonated his suicide vest as he realized that he was about to be captured by Turkish intelligence forces, according to security sources.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on late April 30 announced that the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) "neutralized" al-Qurashi in Syria.

A woman from quake-hit Hatay has formed an association called "We are here, Hatay" ("Buradayız Hatay" in Turkish) to encourage their relatives and neighbors to back to their hometown.

As the southern province of Hatay suffered the worst damage in the earthquakes on the night of Feb. 6, approximately 700,000 people migrated to other cities.

A painter living in the Central Anatolian province of Kırıkkale draws paintings of heartbreaking moments from the Kahramanmaraş-centered quakes and displays them on her wall, dedicating them to quake survivor children.

Şengül Otman, a 43-year-old painter living in Kırıkkale, paints historical structures and cultural assets in many provinces of the country with watercolor.