[Video transcript]
This is what remains of the once bustling city of Antakya.
Abandoned apartment buildings line the roads. Reminders of a life that no longer exists here.
(Julia Hahn, DW Correspondent)
"A year has passed since the quakes and they are still busy demolishing damaged buildings and clearing the rubble. This neighborhood used to be home to thousands of people, but — just look around — it's almost entirely gone."
A year ago, two powerful earthquakes battered southeastern Turkey. They destroyed or severely damaged some 300,000 buildings — across 11 provinces. Experts say construction safety codes had been ignored on a grand scale. Some lives could be rescued — but many couldn't.
Today, the official death toll stands at more than 50,000. These graves in Antakya — a monument to pain.
Abdurrahman Dascioglu lost his brother and his mother. He himself was trapped under the rubble for more than a day, he tells me.
(Abdurrahman Dascioglu, earthquake survivor)
"When I managed to get out after more than 30 hours, it looked like the apocalypse had happened — no one knew what to do, everybody had lost someone. And the state wasn't there for us, there was no help."
A year later, hundreds of thousands in the disaster-hit region are still holding out in containers and other temporary shelters.
Like Melek Dasdelen, who invites me into her improvised kitchen. She's been living here for almost a year, with her husband and two children.
(Melek Dasdelen, earthquake survivor)
"I can't get used to this. I had a big house, I had everything. And now, I don't know what will happen, what will become of my kids. With all the rain and the cold, I sometimes tell myself: God, I wish we had died too, as a family."
Shortly after the quakes, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made bold promises to swiftly rebuild across the region.
(Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish President)
"Our goal in the first phase is to complete 319,000 homes and village houses within a year and hand them over to their owners."
But reconstruction is progressing slower than promised. At this building site on the outskirts of Antakya, Mustafa Arslan and his team are racing to get the first few thousand apartments ready in February. He attempts to explain the delays.
(Mustafa Arslan, State Housing Agency TOKI)
"The biggest problem right now is the rain. It's been raining heavily in the region. But we are working non-stop — to make sure our earthquake victims can move in as soon as possible."
(Julia Hahn, DW Correspondent)
"Billboards like this one have sprung up across the city. New homes, new jobs — a future. That's the Turkish government's big promise. But as much as people here want to believe in it — many have little hope that life in their city will soon return to how it was before."
Many shop owners are improvising. They sell from containers now. But most of their former customers are either dead or displaced.
(First man)
"We decided to do something on our own, to make ends meet. Life has to go on. We hope that Antakya will soon get back on its feet."
(Second man)
"They say everything will get better, but I am not sure... I think it'll take 10 or 15 years to rebuild this city."
(Woman)
"I am a mother of four children. I'm fighting for them. We have to hold on somehow. At least we are still alive — that means there is hope."
And that hope is a crucial building block for the future, amid the ruins of Antakya.