No trace of 10-year-old girl rescued from rubble
KAHRAMANMARAŞ
Mukaddes Erva Aktaş, a 10-year-old girl rescued from the rubble of a building that collapsed in the deadly earthquakes in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş following six hours of rescue operations has still not been traced some 20 days after the quakes.
Mukaddes Erva Aktaş’s father, Abdullah Aktaş, who was also rescued from the rubble four hours after his daughter, said they did not get any results from DNA matching with unidentified children who died in the quakes as well.
Members of the Aktaş family were trapped under the rubble when their apartment collapsed in the earthquake in Kahramanmaraş’s Onikişubat district.
While Abdullah Aktaş was pulled out alive after 10 hours and his daughter Mukaddes Erva after six hours, his 30-year-old wife Ayşe Betül, another 4-year-old daughter Zümra, 22-year-old sister Özlem Aktaş and 22-year-old cousin İkra Süme died under the rubble.
Abdullah Aktaş stated his neighbors told him that his daughter was handed over to the paramedics on the way to the hospital, yet he has not heard from her since.
“I could only see Erva’s face, but we talked for five hours in the rubble. She said she could not move her foot, but other than that, she was in good health. When I came out of the rubble, my neighbors said they took the child to take her to the hospital because there was no ambulance,” Aktaş said.
According to Aktaş, while his neighbors were taking Erva to the hospital with their car, they saw an ambulance and handed the child over to the paramedics there.
“I looked at the faces of the patients one by one in all the hospitals around the region. A doctor said they sent the orthopedic cases to Kayseri. I visited all the hospitals in Adana, Eskişehir, Kayseri and Mersin, yet there is no trace of her. Our relatives posted her pictures on social media. I gave a DNA sample, and there was no match,” Aktaş said.
Aktaş stated that he also asked for help from officials of the Family Ministry, the Health Ministry and the Justice Ministry.
“I went to the Kahramanmaraş courthouse and looked at all the photos of the autopsied children buried one by one. But my daughter is not there,” he said.
Meanwhile, as of Feb. 23, 1,405 of the 1,890 unaccompanied minors have been handed over to their families, 380 are being treated in hospitals and 105 are being cared for in the ministry’s children’s homes.
