This photograph shows a view of the damaged and recently restaured Minaret of Sarimiye Mosque, in old town Antakya, on April 1, 2026, over three years after the earthquake that devastated southeastern Turkey, including Antakya, on February 6, 2023. Nothing is "as it was before" the earthquake that devastated the ancient city and southern Turkey in February 2023, killing at least 53,000 people : Three years after the disaster, residents are denouncing opaque reconstruction plans that threaten to empty the old town and jeopardise its multicultural identity. Once bustling, adjacent to working-class neighbourhoods as well as Muslim, Christian and Jewish places of worship, Kurtulus Avenue is now a vast construction site where listed historic buildings are being hastily rebuilt, with support from the European Union. The old town of Antakya was home to more than 13,000 residents before the earthquake, but virtually no homes will remain, according to the controversial new urban development plan. (Photo by Burcin GERCEK / AFP via Getty Images) / TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY BURCN GERCEK