Journalists save tourists from death

BİTLİS - Doğan News Agency

Spanish bicyclists saved by two Turkish journalists in Bitlis, Tatvan district. AFP photo

Two Spanish bicyclists on a world tour were saved by journalists after they were overwhelmed by a winter storm and nearly froze to death in the eastern province of Bitlis.

Matev Marcet and Marina Ribalta, who departed from Barcelona 4.5 months ago, became stranded in the province’s Tatvan district during a snowstorm and had difficulty explaining their predicament due to the language barrier. Eventually, journalists Fettah Yeşilyaprak and Hakan Okay encountered the freezing cyclists on the side of the road and brought them to the district center.

“We visited many cities in Turkey,” said Ribalta. “However, we encountered a snowstorm that we had never experienced before in Bitlis.”

Noting that they stuck on the road and could not move, Ribalta said: “We tried to get help from people who were passing by, but we could not understand them, and they could not understand us.”
Expressing their gratitude, she said they would have died if not for Yeşilyaprak and Okay’s intervention. After their ordeal, Ribalta and Marcet settled into a hotel in Tatvan. Once the storm has ended, the pair plans to continue on to Van before crossing into Iran, she said.