Speaking to Xinhua on the earthquake's first anniversary, Aysegul Oytun said she would never forget what she experienced afterward.
ISTANBUL, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- For some unknown reason, Aysegul Oytun, a doctor in her 40s, woke up at around 5 a.m. local time on the morning of Feb. 6 last year with a feeling of anxiety at her apartment in Istanbul.
Picking up her mobile, she saw dozens of messages and missed calls from relatives and friends inquiring about her family living in Hatay province.
Like a robot, she switched on the television.
A deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the southern part of Türkiye at 4:17 a.m. local time (0117 GMT), and Hatay was the worst-hit province.
Oytun, who had no news of her parents, immediately flew to the nearby province of Adana with her husband and then took a bus to the entrance of Hatay. They had to walk about 20 km with their headlamps until they were able to locate her parents' apartment building.
Speaking to Xinhua on the earthquake's first anniversary, Oytun said she would never forget what she experienced afterward.
"Getting into the city center even on foot was difficult. Destroyed buildings blocked the streets. It was pitch dark," she recalled.
"Many people were trapped under the rubble and screaming for help. I saw bodies sticking out of the debris. Those who were outside were flailing desperately," Oytun said in tears. "It was like a complete apocalypse."
Then, the bitter truth hit her. The building of her parents lay in ruins.
It took search and rescue teams five days to reach the bodies of her parents.
"During this long wait, there were times when I was ashamed of my pain when I heard others' stories," she recounted the story of her childhood friend, Esra, who had lost her two children, her husband, and her sister in the same building.
On the third day of the catastrophe, a miracle brought a little hope to the heart of Oytun. A little girl was rescued from the rubble of the building. But she was the only survivor of Emlak Bank Houses, which comprised six buildings and were once home to 400 people.
The worst disaster in Türkiye's modern history claimed the lives of more than 50,000 people, left millions homeless and devastated in over 10 provinces.■
