A defeated, but also determined look that says: I won’t let go of her. The photo in which Mesut Hançer (49) held the hand of his deceased daughter Irmak (15), who was buried under the rubble of the earthquake in Turkey, went around the world. Now the father tells his story in Turkish media. “I tried to dig with my bare hands to save my princess, but it didn’t work.”
The morning after the earthquake, photographer Adem Altan from AFP news agency was in the Turkish town of Kahramanmaraş, the epicenter of the disaster. There was no rescue team on site yet: the residents tried to clear the rubble themselves to save their loved ones. Altan saw a man in an orange coat motionless in the rubble of what had previously been a ten-story building.
The photographer suddenly realized that the man had one hand in his. At that moment, he immediately thought that this image perfectly summarized the pain of the earthquake victims. The impact was great: the photo of Mesut Hançer holding the hand of his deceased daughter Irmak went all over the world.
Hançer has now buried his daughter. Her name is inscribed on a flat wooden post numbered 380 in Kapiçam cemetery. “I was working in the bakery when the earth shook,” Hançer recalls, telling reporters from Image and CNN Turk. “I called my wife. She said she, my two daughters and my son were safe.” But his youngest daughter Irmak stayed that night with her grandmother, where her cousins were also visiting.
The father called his mother, but no one answered. He ran to the building, hoping it hadn’t collapsed. His prayers were not answered. He found his daughter under the rubble, which could not simply be cleared away because further collapse threatened. ,,I tried to dig with my bare hands to save my princess, but I couldn’t get her out. I prayed a lot, but unfortunately it didn’t work. I lost her.” His mother and two older brothers also died.
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Sadness
Rescue workers eventually helped to remove Irmak’s body from the debris, he says Tele 1. “With picks and a shovel. I didn’t want to let go of her hand for a moment, there was no other choice for me. My only consolation is that my daughter slept like an angel in her bed. She went without pain.” The grief is immense. “It is terrible to bury your mother, father or brother, but to give up your own child … that is indescribable. She took my life, my heart and my arms with her when she died.”
Photographer Adem Altan tried to talk to the father, but the quieter it was, the better the residents could hear the voices of possible survivors under the rubble. The image of father and daughter together is etched in his memory. “I was so moved then. I had tears in my eyes. I kept saying to myself, my God, this is excruciating pain.”
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