KAHRAMANMARAS, TURKEY: Encapsulating the unspeakable pain of the Turkish earthquake, a father, Mesut Hancer, held the hand of his 15 years old daughter Irmak, who died in the Turkish earthquake in Kahramanmaras, close to the quake’s epicentre, the day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country’s southeast, on February 7, 2023.
The Irmak’s hand can be seen stretched out from underneath concrete slabs. Her body lay on a bed beneath slabs of concrete, glass and bricks in the region of Kahramanmaras that collapsed on top of her during the fatal quake. AFP’s Adem Atlan photographed father Mesut Hancer holding the hand of his aughter Irmak.
The father sat alone in cold
Teh father, Mesut Hancer sat alone in the frigid weather on a pile of broken bricks that were once his home, oblivious to the world and overwhelmed by grief.
Rescuers in Turkey and Syria braved frigid weather, aftershocks and collapsing buildings, as they dug for survivors buried by an earthquake that killed more than 28,000 people. Some of the heaviest devastation occurred near the quake’s epicentre between Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, a city of two million where entire blocks now lie in ruins under gathering snow.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan admitted the government was not entirely efficient in its initial response to the quake. But the president, who is up for re-election in May, said the response has improved. He also promised the government would distribute 10,000 Turkish lira (or about $532) to families impacted by the disaster, according to Reuters.
Turkey is prone to earthquakes, though the one that struck Monday is believed to be the strongest in the country in about eight decades, according to NPR. This is the deadliest earthquake worldwide since 2015, when a 7.8-magnitude quake left 8,800 people dead in Nepal, the AP reported.
Father, Hand, Daughter
