February 13, 2023, 5:59 AM
Rescuer Mustafa Ozturk keeps shouting: “Merve! Irem! Merve! Irem…”.
All those present have been ordered to observe deathly silence.
The rescue team continues to search for two sisters who other survivors say are trapped and still live under piles of rubble.
With sensitive devices they try to capture any response. Everyone remains frozen in anticipation.
“Irem, dear, I am close to you, am Ican you hear me?” asks Mustafa.
Those of us who watch the scene can’t hear anything, but we soon discover that the young woman is responding.
A small group of friends of Merve and Irem wait with us in silence.
“You are excellent! Now keep calm and answer me. Ah, okay, that’s Merve. Merve dear, just answer my questions,” she continues.
Merve, 24, and her sister Irem, 19, were trapped under the rubble of their five-story apartment block in Antakya, southern Turkey, which was leveled by the quake.
They stayed there for two days, but to them those days felt like weeks.
“It’s Wednesday. No. You haven’t been trapped for 14 days! Give us five minutes. You’re on your way out.”
Mustafa knows it will take hours to get them out, but he tells us, “If they lose hope, they may not survive.”
Merve and Irem begin to joke and laugh together. I can see a big smile on the rescuer’s face:
“If they had space, they would probably dance,” Mustafa says.
A very delicate operation
According to the rescuers’ calculations, there are 2 meters to go to reach the sisters, but Hasan Binay, the commander of the rescue team, explains that digging a tunnel in that tangle of concrete is a very delicate operation.
One wrong move could lead to catastrophe.
They bring in an excavator to very slightly lift and support the thick concrete to prevent the building from collapsing when they start digging.
“Girls, we’ll give you blankets soon.” Mustafa tells the sisters.
“Oh no, don’t worry about usas. We are not tired or cold.”
Mustafa notices that Merve is worried about the situation of the rescuers. It is 20:30 local time and it is very cold. The inhabitants of the town assure that they have had one of the coldest winters that they remember.
Shortly thereafter, rescuers begin frantically digging and pushing aside the rubble with their bare hands.
But after a couple of hours we feel the ground shaking suddenly. This is a strong replica.
Operations must stop and have to leave building devastated.
“There is a reality that can be brutal. The safety of our team is the priority,” explains Hasan.
“Do you see the light?”
After 30 minutes, Mustafa and three other rescuers return to where they were digging.
“Don’t be afraid. Trust me, we’re not going to leave you here. I’m going to take you out and then you’ll treat us to a nice lunch,” Mustafa yells.
The girls thought they had been left to die.
It is already midnight and the excavation has resumed.
The team has slept very little. We have gathered around a small campfire right next to the building.
Every so often a shout is heard: “sessizlik”, which means silence.
They turn off the light. Now total darkness reigns. They have made a small hole in the concrete to see if the girls can see the light coming from Mustafa’s torch.
“Merve! Irem! See the light? OK! Perfect! Now I’m going to send a little camera down. Once you see it, tell me and i will tell you what to do“.
It is a moment of joy for all. Hasan joins his team to watch the girls on the small screen connected to his night vision camera. They can see both Irem and Merve.
“Our mother has begun to stink”
“You’re beautiful. Don’t move too much. Irem, pull the camera so we can get a better look at Merve.”
On the screen, we see that Irem is smiling. Fortunately, there is enough space for them between the concrete to trap them.
Relief floods everyone’s faces. The girls look good and at least Irem has room to hang out. and they manage to enlarge the hole.
But almost immediately the team seems concerned. Merve has told them that she has started to feel cold and that she has something heavy on her feet.
The doctors were concerned: “Does Merve’s feet have gangrene? Or is this the first symptom of hypothermia?”
It is around 05:00 in the morning. The tunnel is big enough for the skinniest member of the team to slide down. The rescuer manages to reach out and hold Irem’s hand for a moment.
“Our mother’s body has started to stink and we can’t breathe well,” Irem tells rescuers.
The girls have been lying next to their dead mother for several days.
It is shocking. How horrible that there can be moments in life when you don’t want to have your mother by your side, we reflect.
Hasan asks one of Merve’s friends, who is still waiting, stressed and silent, to show him the photo she has of the girls. are trying to estimate how so ancho they need to dig the hole.
In the photo the two girls are smiling, in ball gowns, while celebrating a wedding.
laughing and crying
“Perfect! We can get them out.” The medical team is prepared with thermal blankets and stretchers.
They are all excited. It’s 6:30am and Irem gets there first. He is laughing and crying at the same time.
“God bless you. Please bring Merve back too. Please,” she pleads with the rescuers.
“Merve’s going to be next. I promise,” Hasan comforts her.
But get the Merve it takes another 30 minutes. They need to free your feet from under the concrete without hurting it. The operation is successful.
Once Merve walks out, everyone starts clapping excitedly. I hear Merve scream in pain but then she asks, “Am I really alive?”
“You are, my dear,” Mustafa replies, smiling.
The friends who have been here all night start to cry. “Merve! Irem! We are here. Don’t be afraid.”
The sisters are then loaded into ambulances and taken to a field hospital.
After this moment of joy comes one chilling. Rescuers ask everyone to be silent again. They’re going to make one last call.
“If someone hears me, answer. If you can’t answer, try touching the ground.”
Hasan repeats, imploring, from different angles. Then, sadly, with red spray he signs on the concrete, writing codes so that other rescue teams don’t search the building.
“Rescuing a human being is a beautiful feeling, but we wish there were no deaths.”
I can see the sadness on his face.
“Are you going to have lunch with Merve and Irem?” I ask. He smiles: “I hope one day we can. But the most important thing is that now they are alive and in good hands.”
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