Imos Bicki, a Kurdish woman from southeast Turkey, visits the ruins of her house that was destroyed in a deadly 2020 earthquake. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - As soon as the sun rises, Imos Bicki, an elderly Kurdish woman from southeast Turkey, visits the ruins of her house that was destroyed in a deadly 2020 earthquake.
Forty-one people were killed when the 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit Elazig province in January 2020.
Bicki survived the quake and now lives two kilometers away from her ruined home, in a brand new two-story house built by the Turkish government.
But the elderly woman, one of the oldest in the world, says she only finds solace at her old house in the village of Ceko, where she lived almost her entire life.
Her ID puts her age at 104, but she and her neighbors say she is 114.
She spends most of her time sitting among the rubble of her old house, tending to a small garden, cooking, drinking tea, and knitting.
All she wants from the authorities is to repair her old house, or at least place a caravan in the same place.
In the 2020 earthquake, 89 houses in the village of Ceko were severely damaged or destroyed.
"I opened my eyes here. This was my nest, my children were born here. What should I do? Thank God," Bicki said while sitting in the shade of a tree near the ruins of her old house.
Bicki has been married four times and all four of her spouses have died.
"I have been married four times. I have seven children, three are dead and four are alive," she said.
Bicki is grateful that the government built her a new house: "May the Prophet be pleased with you, they built a two-room house for me."
But she wants to return to her old home.
Her family, friends, and neighbors support the call for her old home to be rebuilt.
"She comes and goes six kilometers every day. She has a longing for this place. She barely manages to come here. She comes here every morning," said her daughter Edelet Armagan.
The head of Ceko village also called on the government to rebuild the elderly woman's house.
"I am speaking from here as a mayor. I hope they will hear our voice and do a good job for our aunt," said Khalit Armagan, the village chieftain.
"These may be her last days. If everyone helps her, she should spend her last days under her tree," said a neighbor, Figen Armagan.
In February 2023, two more earthquakes devastated Turkey's southeast, killing about 51,000 people, injuring 100,000 more, and destroying thousands of buildings.
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