'Don't give up hope': Rescued quake victims become beacons of hope in quake-hit parts of Türkiye

By Anadolu Staff

ANKARA (AA) - Rescued after enduring 64 hours in the freezing cold, 24-year-old Dogan Akkok never fell into despair while trapped under the debris of a collapsed building near the epicenter of Monday's earthquakes in Türkiye, writing the words, "Don't give up hope," on the surrounding rubble.

Firefighters from Antalya province working to rescue those trapped in Kahramanmaras province's Dulkadiroglu district — neighboring the Pazarcik district where the first of two destructive earthquakes was centered — constantly reassured the young man as they pulled away the bricks and cement to get him out.

Another miracle rescue came as a seven-month-old baby was pulled out 66 hours after the devastating quakes, this time in the southern province of Hatay. Dispatched from southeastern Hakkari province, National Medical Rescue Team (UMKE) pulled the baby alive from under the rubble of a collapsed building in Odabasi neighborhood.

As rescue teams from around the world rushed to the quake-hit region, an Indonesian disaster crew and firefighters from the northwestern Kocaeli province pulled a boy named Yusuf Elmaruf from under the rubble late on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Kocaeli Municipality.

Meanwhile, an 11-year-old child who was stranded in the rubble of a collapsed building in Adiyaman for 66 hours was rescued by Türkiye's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) and paramedics after a six-hour effort.

Berke Daglarasar's family members, who were caught in the rubble of the same building in the Turgut Reis neighborhood, were among the thousands who died in the quake. Daglarasar's question to his uncle about his parents' whereabouts burst everyone into tears on the ground.

More good news came from the province after search and rescue teams heard a noise from the debris of a five-story building on Sakarya Street. The rescue teams pulled out Ayse Atceken and her daughters Emine and Feyza alive from the rubble 65 hours after the quake.

In Hatay province, disaster teams rescued Saziye Kalagzi, 80, in another ray of hope in the grim aftermath of the earthquakes. The teams rescued the elderly woman who survived under the rubble for 68 hours after hearing her cry for help.

At least 12,873 people were killed and 62,937 others were injured by two strong earthquakes which jolted southern Türkiye on Monday, the country's disaster agency said on Thursday.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, were felt by 13 million people across 10 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.

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

* Writing by Burak Dag