International relief for Türkiye’s earthquake-hit region prevails almost one month after the disaster. Azerbaijan, one of Türkiye’s closest allies, was among the first international responders in the aftermath of the tragedy, sending both aid and search and rescue teams.
Crews from Azerbaijan have wrapped up search and rescue work, but more volunteers remain in Türkiye to help heal the wounds of survivors, particularly mental scars. In a sprawling tent city on the grounds of Sütçü İmam University in the province of Kahramanmaraş, the epicenter of earthquakes, volunteers scramble to reach out to earthquake survivors.
“Upon the call of our president, we came here as a delegation of 100 volunteers. We continue to volunteer here in Kahramanmaraş, in Adıyaman and in other places affected by the earthquakes. We help people who suffered from the earthquakes. For instance, we take care of children affected by the disaster. We organize fun activities for them so they may forget this traumatic disaster. We cannot erase the memories of earthquakes from their minds entirely, but we can at least halve the impact of what they went through. We can help them to overcome this shock,” Anar Azizov, one of the volunteers, told Daily Sabah on Thursday in Kahramanmaraş.
“Our work focuses on aid delivery and offering psychological support to people after the search and rescue work is completed,” Uzeyir Mustafayev, another volunteer, said.
“President Ilham Aliyev told the Turkish ambassador in Baku (as they were seeing us off to Türkiye) that we were one hand, one heart, one life and this is our motto. We are with you, Türkiye,” Mustafayev added as he showed their uniform adorned with the motto.
