"I'm alive, but I'm dead inside!" The father who brought the world to tears: I couldn't save my princess

2023-02-16 23:12:11Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"I'm alive, but I'm dead inside!" The father who brought the
Mesut Hançer with the hand of his late daughter

The painful scenes in the photos where Mesut Hançer, 49, gently holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter Irmak, who is lying under the rubble of the building, shocked people around the world.

The heartbreaking scenes from Kahramanmaras best described the grief suffered by millions of people in the earthquake-stricken countries of Turkey and Syria.

Mesut Hançer lost six other family members in the deadly earthquake, including his mother and relatives. The most painful loss was certainly that of his daughter, where the Turk could only hold her hand without being able to help her.

"I tried to free my daughter, my princess, with my bare hands, but in the end I had to leave her in the ruins ," said Hançer.

Every day he visits the place where he last saw his daughter Irmak. He comes to that place in an orange jacket, the same one he was wearing when the most shocking photos from Turkey were recorded.

“My daughter and six other relatives all died while staying at my mother's house in Kahramanmaras. The epicenter of the earthquake was right there. I was at work, in the bakery, when the ground shook," says Mesut.

"I immediately called my wife. She told me that she, our two daughters and our son were safe. But the youngest daughter slept on the sofa at my grandmother's house that night because she wanted to be with her relatives. Desperate, I called my mother, but she didn't answer the call, so I ran to her house" , added Mesut Hançer.

When he reached his mother's house, he found that the ten-story building had collapsed.

Irmak, his mother and relatives had died.

"I didn't want to leave him. I held his hand, it was the only part of his body visible under the rubble. I tried to pull her out with my bare hands, but she was sleeping. "God took my daughter ," said the shocked father in an interview for Turkish television TV100.

"I'm alive, but I'm dead inside!" The father who brought the

"It was very difficult to remove the rubble. We were looking for an excavator but couldn't get one. The police arrived at the scene but could not send us an excavator. And the rescue team tried, but could not. I want to thank them" , says Mesut.

" I grieve for every member of my family, but my daughter's death broke my heart. I'm alive, but inside I feel dead. She was like a rose and smelled like a rose," concluded Mesut.


Video