The inhabitants of the large Turkish city of Gaziantep, a few kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake, have by now gotten used to the aftershocks that take place every night, but among those left homeless there is an increasing sense of anger and tension.

"Syrians here receive from their State tents and blankets, while we are forced to stay out here in the cold and huddle around a fire," says Mustafa, a 45-year-old worker who lives in one of the many tent settlements set-up by the local civil protection in areas of the historic center that are far from the tallest buildings in town. His three children are between ages 8 and 12, they are by his side, next to their mother Selma.

"We have nothing against migrants but it is unacceptable that they can stay in tents and we, who were born here, were not given this option," says the woman.

Nearly 500 thousand Syrian migrants are refugees again

Government officers in Ankara estimate that the homeless are approximately one million in the city center and over 2 million in the entire province, practically the entire population.

The city is about 40 kilometers from the Syrian border and, after Istanbul, it is the second city in terms of the number of Syrians it hosts. These are Syrians who fled to Turkey after the beginning of the conflict in their country. They are nearly 500 thousand, and after the earthquake they became refugees again just like when they fled the conflict in Syria in the previous years, they are the majority of those who are now in tented areas and they do not like speaking to the media.

Some, both Syrians and Turks, were unable to find a place in the tented areas set-up by authorities and to spend the night they created shelters with mats and pieces of wood. They can be found in various areas of the city, even not far away from half-destroyed homes in the center, where among the damaged buildings there is a mosque from the seventeenth century that stands out and the great castle, dating back to Roman times on the hill, built nearly 2,000 years ago and almost completely destroyed by the earthquake.

The city's outskirts, going in the direction of the quake's epicenter, are those which were most affected. Many ten-story buildings are completely razed to the ground.

Some shops re-open, although their safeness is uncertain

In the city of Gaziantep electricity still works, even if this time with difficulty, and gas provision continues contrary to what is happening in other towns that are not too far from the city and closer to the quake's epicenter, where entire neighborhoods were razed to the ground and its displaced persons were left in the cold and in the dark.

Four days after the earthquake, some food shops have re-opened. "We are doing it out of necessity and to help the population", says the shopkeeper Ali, 35, whose home is semi-destroyed and sleeps in the car each night.

He is doing what many like him are doing but he decided to keep his small activity open in a building in the center, without being sure about its safety.

"Only God knows if this shop is secure," he says hoping that all will turn out for the best, "God willing, Inshallah."

While the search in the rubble for people continues, the number of victims continues to increase and some in town say the total number of victims could reach several hundreds of thousands.

Arriving in Gaziantep on one of the very few available flights from Istanbul, the tragedy is apparent immediately upon arrival. When the aircraft touches the runway and the cell phone can be turned on, a young woman received a call from her father announcing the passing of the girl's mother. She breaks into tears, as it happens to many outside the airport when they meet their relatives who arrive from Istanbul to commemorate those family members who lost their lives in the earthquake.

*Note: The report was written four days after the February 6 earthquake.