ANXIOUS Turkish expatriates living in Bahrain have been desperately trying to make contact with family and friends caught up in the earthquake disaster.
Türkiye’s ambassador to Bahrain Esen Çakil told the GDN last night that many of her fellow citizens living in the kingdom came from Hatay, one of the badly-hit southern provinces situated along the eastern coast of the Levantine Sea.
“We’re aware that many of our citizens from Hatay are awaiting news about and from their families,” said Ms Çakil. “Our heartfelt prayers go out to them and all our citizens caught up in this tragedy.”
There are around 1,500 people from Türkiye living in Bahrain.
Rengin Maklai, who lives in Budaiya, managed to get information from loved ones living in earthquake-hit Adana, a major city in southern Türkiye, situated on the Seyhan River, 35km inland from the Mediterranean Sea.
“My uncle’s relatives had to evacuate their building after it was damaged,” she told the GDN. “They are elderly and are now waiting in a car in the cold because they don’t know what to do or where to go. It’s a tragic situation.”
Former Bahrain restaurateur Yagmur Gokaslan, 30, who used to run the popular Middle East diner in Budaiya, spoke of her grandparents’ miraculous escape and how babies were being plucked from the wreckage.
“My grandparents managed to leave their home two minutes before their building collapsed in Antakya,” she told the GDN. “My parents are on the way now to help them.
“People living at the lower levels had to jump out of their apartment windows and babies were being passed into the arms of rescuers.
“More than 100 people are known to have died and hundreds missing, most likely buried under the rubble. Everything was destroyed in the blink of an eye.”
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