Teen who scored top grade in high school entrance exam dies in earthquake

İZMİR

A 17-year-old teenager who had scored the highest grade in the country’s national high school entrance exam a few years ago died in the Oct. 30 earthquake that wreaked destruction on Turkey’s Aegean region.

Arda Baran Demir had moved to the western province of İzmir with his family to study at a private school in the city which had granted him a scholarship for obtaining the highest score on TEOG, the country’s national high school admission exam.

Demir had worked as a shepherd helping his family outside of school in a village in the eastern province of Tunceli’s Çemişgezek district, where he had been a successful student at school.

Demir became the winner of TEOG in 2017 after studying day and night to pursue his dreams.

He and his family moved to the Bayraklı district, which witnessed more destruction than other İzmir districts, after securing a scholarship at the private school.

Demir was caught in the earthquake at home after he came from school in the afternoon of Oct. 30 on a permission.

The building where Demir lived collapsed.

The body of Demir, who was under the wreckage, was reached by rescuers on Nov. 1.

“Seventeen-year-old Arda Baran Demir, from the village of Payamdüzü in Çemişgezek, who came first in [exam in] Turkey by answering 119 questions out of 120 questions correctly in the TEOG and made us proud, lost his life in the İzmir earthquake,” Ali Mustafa Çelik, the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) Tunceli provincial chairman, said in a social media post.

“I wish God’s mercy upon Arda, who has led us all to deep pain, and my condolences and patience to his family and all his loved ones,” he added.

His mother, Feray Demir, and father, Aydın Demir, had difficulty standing at his funeral in Tunceli.