‘I saw solidarity on ground,’ says Serbian rescuer after working in quake-hit Türkiye

Dragan Bjelic says he loves to say they were born for this kind of job 'but disaster like this is our first time to get involved'

By Seda Sevencan and Kenan Irtak

ISTANBUL (AA) – After racing to save lives in southern Türkiye, a Serbian rescuer touched on international solidarity with Turkish people in the wake of the earthquake tragedy.

Speaking to the press at Istanbul airport, Dragan Bjelic, head of the Serbian medical and rescue team, said that his team, which consists of five people, worked in rescue operations in Kahramanmaras province for seven days.

Bjelic said he loves to say they were born for this kind of job, "but a disaster like this is our first time to get involved."

Talking about his impressions in the region during the rescue efforts, Bjelic underlined:

"I feel a lot of international solidarity with people from Turkey and so much love for people from Turkey. I saw the solidarity on the ground. I saw the sadness in the people's eyes."

He also noted that local people in Kahramanmaras were very kind and thankful towards them, for they rushed to help after the catastrophe.

Separately, Bosnian soldier Miralim Canic said he came to Türkiye with a team of 10 people and conducted rescue activities with coordination of the Istanbul-based Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) in Hatay province.

Canic voiced his sadness over not pulling anybody alive from the debris of collapsed buildings, saying, "We recovered a few dead bodies (from the debris). It is very difficult to describe what happened there. We cannot express what we saw there. May God help you."

More than 36,000 people have died in two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye last week, the country's disaster agency said.

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 less than 10 hours.

Kaynak: