War-hit Bosnian man rushes to help Turkish earthquake victims

By Mustafa Deveci and Nuri Aydın

HATAY, Türkiye (AA) - A Bosnian war survivor came to the southern Turkish Hatay province following catastrophic earthquakes that jolted Türkiye last week.

Speaking to Anadolu, Zlatan Kovacevic, the head of SOS Bihac charity, recounted what he experienced after receiving the news of the earthquakes and what they did for the quake victims.

Kovacevic said that he was one of the first victims of the Bosnian War, from 1992 and 1995 which left thousands of people dead. The doctors amputated one of his legs after he was seriously injured by a Serbian tank at 14 years of age, he said.

Despite his need to use crutches for walking, the Bosnian man rushed to help victims in the quake-hit region after receiving the news of the disaster. “First day, I couldn't sleep. We called our friends in the organization immediately and talked about what we can do."

He came to Türkiye with his friends from SOS Bihac to contribute to alleviating the suffering of earthquake victims and establish a field hospital in the region, Kovacevic said, adding: "I cannot sit at home and see movies (when) I see people in trouble. Because I can help (them).”

Before setting out for Türkiye, Kovacevic launched an aid campaign and a truckload of goods was ready in a day.

- Driving for 40 hours without sleeping

Kovacevic said: "We drove for 40 hours without sleeping. I am a team leader, I said to my team: 'I see you are tired, we should take a pause and sleep.' But they said to me, 'Nobody is tired, we must arrive there immediately.'"

He said when they reached Türkiye, people bought coffee and food for them.

“Sometimes they took our hands and cried. Yesterday, a policeman stopped us and took a selfie with us.”

At least 36,187 people were killed by the two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye last week, the country's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) said on Thursday.

The Feb. 6 magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people across 11 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa, and Elazig.

Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in the space of less than 10 hours.​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​*Writing by Seda Sevencan