Turkish man refuses to leave herd behind in quake-hit southeast

A middle-aged man in a village in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaraş, the epicenter of the second earthquake that occurred last Monday, shared he was left in the wreckage with his family in the quake’s aftermath and that he lost around 300 animals owing to a barn collapse.

The 50-year-old Erdoğan Özgen, who made a living from animal husbandry, said he had safely transferred his wife and children to his relatives in Istanbul after they were evacuated from the rubble but he decided not to leave his village because of his animals. “How can I go, we reared them just like our children. I can’t leave them,” Özgen said.

Özgen, who came out of the wreckage with minor injuries rescued his children, wife, nephews, aunt and mother on his own. Unfortunately, he could not save all his animals from the barn debris. “At the time of the first earthquake, we left our house and gathered outside. A beam of light came out from behind the mountain. We entered the houses assuming nothing would happen. The second earthquake destroyed us, it swept us away,” Özgen lamented.

”Such a disaster has devastated us. I was alone in the wreckage and got my kids out safely. I have a minor fracture on my rib that needs medical treatment, but thank goodness there is no death. Unfortunately, our animals are still inside. There is no one left in the village, they have all migrated,” he narrated his ordeal.

Özgen said that they wanted tents to be used as barns for animals in the village with a population of about 400, where 70% of the houses were destroyed. “We cannot feed the animals, we are in a very difficult situation.” Mentioning that the rescue workers had provided him with food, Özgen shared that he could not leave his livestock behind at any cost.

Role of animals in quake zone

Animals, who as humans were equally affected by the twin quakes that struck southeastern Türkiye, were left down and out. However, some animals such as dogs and cats proved to be the heroes saving human lives in the past nine days.

One of the families whose house was destroyed by the earthquake in Hatay is the Genco family of three. During their interview with Anadolu Agency (AA), the family described how they reached the safety zone with the help of their dog. Ayşe Genco described the dawn when the earthquake occurred, their dog led them toward the garden gate after he was unleashed from her son’s hand.

The dog also led the team of rescuers, from Antalya’s Konyaaltı Municipality, which had lost its way while bringing aid to the Göksun district of Kahramanmaraş over the weekend. The video of the dog rushing up the hill went viral over social media in Türkiye.

A group of three dogs, that were part of the South Korean rescue team, and were right on the field while having injured paws also garnered attention with heaps of praise as they demonstrated how the role of animals in catastrophic events such as earthquakes can never be overlooked.

The joy and glee brought by the news of cat rescues once again reaffirmed the love and affection of the Turkish nation for animals. People rescued from the rubble hours after the earthquake were seen asking for their pets and urged the rescue workers to save them as soon as possible.

In Osmaniye, a cat was rescued from the seventh floor of the damaged apartment on Monday and was immediately taken for medical treatment through mutual efforts of the gendarmerie and Animal Search and Rescue Association (HAK-TIM) teams.

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