The iconic photo of a father in an orange jacket holding his daughter's hand after she was killed in Türkiye's Feb. 6 earthquake has provoked an outpouring of sympathy and support worldwide, the mourning parent told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Around three weeks after the disaster that killed more than 44,300 people in Türkiye and thousands more in neighboring Syria, AFP photographer Adem Altan tracked down Mesut Hançer in the capital Ankara.
He had moved there from Kahramanmaraş, the epicenter of the quakes.
In addition to his daughter, who he lost under the ruins of an eight-story block of flats, "I lost my mother, my brothers, my nephews in the quake," said Hançer.
"But nothing compares to burying a child. The pain is indescribable."
The image of Hançer wearing an orange jacket, sitting in the cold and rain while holding his daughter's hand as it protruded from under the rubble, was published on many newspaper front pages and seen millions of times online.
It became a symbol of a disaster that devastated tens of thousands of lives, drawing particular attention to his family.
Now, a businessperson has offered the former baker an administrative job at a TV channel and gave the family an apartment in Ankara.
Meanwhile, a painting of Hançer's daughter Irmak as an angel alongside her father, donated by an artist, hangs in their living room.
"I couldn't let go of her hand. My daughter was sleeping like an angel in her bed," he recalled.
Hançer was working in his bakery when the quake hit at 4:17 a.m. (0117 GMT) on Feb. 6.
Calling home, he found his wife and three adult children safe in their one-story house, although it was damaged as the earth shook.
But no one could reach Irmak, the youngest, who had stayed the night at her grandmother's house. She had planned to spend time with cousins visiting from Istanbul and Hatay.
Rushing to his mother's building, Hançer found the eight-story block collapsed into a mound of rubble.
His daughter was in the middle, amid the debris of everyday life.
Before a rescue team arrived, Hançer and other local people tried to find their loved ones under the ruins themselves, even trying – and failing – to shift concrete blocks by hand.
Unable to recover Irmak's body, he remained by her side.
"I held her hand, stroked her hair, kissed her cheeks," he recalls.
Later, he saw Adem Altan taking photos of the scene.
"Take pictures of my child," he said in a quiet, broken voice.
