NEAR ONE of Izmir's main thoroughfares, bulldozers and excavators power through a vast heap of rubble and steel wire, the ghastly remains of an apartment block levelled by an earthquake that struck Turkey's third-biggest city in late October. Movers salvage furniture and kitchen supplies from buildings awaiting demolition or on the verge of collapse, their facades covered with deep cracks. A few hundred metres away, outside a shelter for those made homeless by the disaster, Meryem, a divorced teacher, and her two children are packing their belongings onto a pickup truck. Her house survived, says Meryem, but suffered so much damage that she refuses to go back. "I would not wish this on anyone," she says.
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