Wave of support for Turkish father who lost daughter in quake
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Mesut Hancer holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak, who died in the earthquake in Kahramanmaras.
PHOTO: AFP
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ANKARA - A photo of a father holding his daughter’s hand killed in Turkey’s Feb 6 earthquake has provoked an outpouring of sympathy and support from around the world.
Around three weeks after the disaster that killed more than 44,000 people
He had moved there from Kahramanmaras, near the epicentre of the quake.
Mr Hancer said that, in addition to his daughter, who died under the ruins of an eight-storey block of flats, he also “lost my mother, my brothers, my nephews in the quake”.
“But nothing compares to burying a child,” he said. “The pain is indescribable.”
The image of Mr Hancer wearing an orange jacket against the cold and rain while holding his daughter’s hand emerging from the rubble was published on many newspaper front pages and seen millions of times online.
It became a symbol of a disaster that has devastated tens of thousands of lives, drawing special attention to his family.
Now, a businessman has offered the former baker an administrative job at a TV channel and given the family an apartment in Ankara.
Meanwhile a painting of Mr Hancer’s daughter Irmak as an angel alongside her father, donated by an artist, hangs in their living room.
“I couldn’t let go of her hand. My daughter was sleeping like an angel in her bed,” he recalled.
A painting of Hancer’s daughter Irmak as an angel alongside her father, donated by an artist, hangs in their living room.
PHOTO: AFP
Waiting for help
Hancer was working in his bakery when the quake hit at 4.17am (0117 GMT).
Calling home, he found his wife and three adult children were safe at home in their one-storey house, although it was damaged as the earth shook.
But no-one could reach Irmak, the youngest, who had stayed the night at her grandmother’s house.
She had planned to spend time with cousins visiting from Istanbul and Hatay.
Mesut Hancer (centre), his wife Gulseren (second from right), and their children Beste, Ezgi and Berkay in their appartment in Ankara.
PHOTO: AFP
Rushing to his mother’s building, Mr Hancer found the eight-storey block collapsed into a mound of rubble.
In the middle, amid the debris of everyday life, was his daughter.
Waiting more than a day before any rescue team arrived, Mr Hancer and other local people tried to find their loved ones under the ruins themselves, even trying – and failing – to shift concrete blocks by hand.
Unable to recover Irmak’s body, he remained by her side.
“I held her hand, I stroked her hair, I kissed her cheeks,” he recalled.
Later, he saw Mr Adem Altan taking photos of the scene.
“Take pictures of my child,” he said in a quiet, broken voice. AFP
