ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Turkey on Thursday commemorates the second anniversary of the February 6, 2023 earthquakes which claimed the lives of 53,000 lives in the country, and reduced many entire towns to fields of rubble. The destructive tremor also killed some 6,000 in neighboring Syria.

The 7.8-degree magnitude tremors that struck parts of southern Turkey, “opened great wounds in our hearts and left indelible marks in the memory of our nation, I pray to God to have mercy on each and every one of our 53,537 brothers and sisters that we lost.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote on X on Thursday.

Erdogan said they had not withdrawn their “hands from the regions affected by the earthquake for even a moment.”

“We will continue our construction and revival efforts with labor, sweat, fortitude, and a steel will until our cities are fully on their feet again.”

While sobbing and grieving, tens of thousands of survivors held torchlit vigils across southern Turkey on Thursday at 4:17 am, the exact minute the earthquake struck two years ago.

The protesters were seen carrying banners reading “We will not forget, we will not forgive. We will hold them accountable!” and shouts demanding "the government's resignation.”

"Whenever I enter a room, the first place I look is the ceiling: would it hold up in an earthquake, or would I be trapped under the rubble?" said Sema Genc, whose home in Antakya collapsed on top of her, killing her entire family.

Thousands of residential buildings in southeastern Turkey collapsed in the wake of the quake, and 670,000 survivors still live in containers, hoping that their names would be drawn in a government lottery and receive new homes from the state.

According to the Turkish Ministry of Urban Planning, nearly 201,500 homes have already been built and given to survivors, with plans for approximately 220,000 more to be handed over by the end of the year.

Two years into the disaster, 189 people have been convicted and given sentences, many on account of negligence, with trials against 1850 other defendants still in progress.

Situated near fault planes that make it susceptible, Turkey is not unfamiliar with earthquakes.

At least 938 earthquakes have been recorded in the Aegean Sea alone between January 28 and February 5, ranging from 1-degree magnitude tremors up to more than five degrees in magnitude, according to reports from Turkey's disaster agency (AFAD).