Malaysian military doctor back in Türkiye out of sense of loyalty after earthquakes

By Cuneyt Celik and Abdullah Soylemez

ADIYAMAN, Türkiye (AA) — A Malaysian military doctor has returned to the country's earthquake-battered southern region to help treat disaster victims out of a sense of loyalty towards the nation where he received training.

Brig. Gen. Amran Amir Hamzah is treating earthquake victims at a field hospital in Adiyaman, one of the 11 provinces hit worst by multiple recent earthquakes.

Dr. Hamzah, who graduated from the Turkish Military Medical Academy 34 years ago, is working alongside over 100 other expert health personnel from the Malaysian army who arrived in the city earlier this month to serve in the field hospital.

An alumnus of the Gulhane Military Medical College in the Turkish capital Ankara, Dr. Hamzah is at the field hospital's helm, overseeing its tomography and laboratory departments, operating room, intensive care unit, and delivery room.

Fluent in Turkish, Hamzah came to the disaster zone willingly. He works with a team of 13 doctors, 16 specialists, 81 nurses, and technicians to assist earthquake victims.

- 'I came back to repay my loyalty debt'

Hamzah told Anadolu that they came to Türkiye on two planes after the quakes and that his team came to the town of Celikhan in Adiyaman to set up the field hospital.

"This earthquake deeply moved and saddened me. I declared that I wanted to come here and immediately volunteer to help. Our group is entirely military. I came to repay by debt of loyalty," he said.

"We faced a lot of difficulty because there's no snow and no earthquakes back in our country. We aren't used to snow, and the temperatures drop to minus 10-15 degrees at night. This is a challenge for us. The (people) in our group saw snow in person for the first time."

The country's disaster management agency said Tuesday that at least 42,310 people were killed in two powerful earthquakes that struck southern Türkiye on Feb. 6.

The 7.7- and 7.6-magnitude quakes, which occurred in Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people in 11 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Elazig and Sanliurfa.

"We're helping residents under difficult circumstances. Malaysia and Türkiye are brotherly countries. I hope this disaster is quickly overcome and you normalize. Our search and rescue team has also arrived and they're working in Hatay."