Russian woman might be real mother of mystery youth in Antalya

Nine years after he was found injured in a car accident, a paralyzed 25-year-old man with no memory of his past might have found his real mother. Irade Mustafaogul, a Russian woman of Azerbaijani origin, claims the man, named "Umut" (Hope in Turkish) by his Turkish foster mother, may be her long-lost son. Gülsüm Kabadayı, a Turkish woman living in the southern city of Antalya, a Mediterranean resort popular with Russians, had taken care of the bedridden man when he was found unconscious after a bus hit him in the city in 2008. When she noticed that he looked more like a foreigner than a typical Turk and when a Russian interpreter visiting the woman noticed he was "reacting" to Russian words, a search began to find his real parents.

When she saw the man on the news, Mustafaogul noticed he looked like her son who was kidnapped 16 years ago when he was 7-years-old. She has now applied for a DNA test to prove "Umut" really is her son, Kenan. She believes that this is the case as the young man, who is unable to speak, reacted positively when he saw the woman visiting him recently.

"I think this mystery may finally come to an end," Kabadayı told Anadolu Agency."When she spoke Russian to him, he smiled and for the first time, he raised his right hand to hug her. Based on photos of the 7-year-old boy, I can say Umut really resembles him," she said. It also means an end to her years with the young man she first met while she was accompanying a relative admitted to the Antalya hospital where he was being treated. "It will be tough for me. I have been caring for him since 2008 but somewhere out there, he has a real mother, longing for her son for years, searching for him," she said. With her compassion for the mysterious man, Kabadayı has drawn the Russian public to tears when she spoke about their bond in a Russian TV show a few years ago.