Turkish expatriate distributes food to Turkish earthquake victims, volunteers

By Ozgur Alantor and Mehmet Kumcagiz

ADIYAMAN, Türkiye (AA) - A Turkish expatriate is distributing food to earthquake victims at a soup kitchen in his hometown of Adiyaman province after powerful tremors shook southern Türkiye last month.

Neyfel Yildirim, who is registered in the Besni district in Adiyaman where earthquakes caused huge destruction, came to Türkiye without permission from his employer as soon as he learned about the disaster.

Yildirim, who lost nine relatives in the quakes, is participating in aid efforts in the soup kitchen established by members of a local aid and solidarity association in the region.

He told Anadolu that he has been living and working as a driver in Italy for 20 years.

"I saw that our friends were distributing food, trying to help earthquake victims. So, I also participated in the work. I will be here for 20 more days," said Yildirim.

"This is my nation, my homeland. It was hard not to come, to lie in a warm bed there, so I came. I could not contribute to the rescue efforts, but I try to help with the food distribution works as much as I can," he said.

More than 46,100 people have been killed in the back-to-back earthquakes that struck on Feb. 6.

The 7.7- and 7.6-magnitude quakes struck 11 provinces -- Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Hatay, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa. More than 13.5 million people in Türkiye have been affected as well as many others in northwestern Syria.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz