A 438-year-old church within the Iskenderun district of Hatay province sustained minor injury after twin earthquakes struck Türkiye earlier final month.
The church began serving as a storage facility for provides for earthquake victims.
St. George Church, serving 3,000 Christians, developed cracks in its internal partitions and closed its doorways for worship after it was partially broken.
Can Temur, president of the Iskenderun Greek Orthodox Church Fukara Foundation, informed Anadolu that members are hopeful that the church will quickly be repaired and guarded.
“Although, our nearly 500-year-old St. George Church is still standing. There have been cracks in the east and west walls. From the first day of the earthquake, we made an urgent hot meal preparation for our people in the garden of our church, which has a large area, together with our friends from Istanbul and the members of the congregation here. We set up a kitchen. Thankfully, our charitable people and non-governmental organizations have swiftly provided us with all the help. We organized these activities and offered a hot meal to our citizens, or rather to our citizens who could come,” he mentioned.
Temur mentioned many fled the town within the aftermath of the quakes however that they belief life will return to regular as quickly as potential.
He mentioned that as a result of the church was closed for worship, humanitarian provides for survivors have been stored inside.
“As you can see, we are inside the church now. All other areas were demolished. For us, this place is a sacred place and our service is a sacred service, so we use this place as a warehouse. Because this field is solid. It had been rainy the past few days. We have stored these materials. We distributed rations to our citizens in need. Serious help came to us. I would like to express my gratitude to our charitable citizens and to all our non-governmental organizations who sent aid in this regard,” he added.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
