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Turkish football fans in anti-government chants in quake anger
Turkish football fans in anti-government chants in quake anger
by AFP Staff Writers
Ankara (AFP) Feb 26, 2023

Besiktas fans called on the Turkish government to resign in terrace chants Sunday, throwing hundreds of soft toys onto the pitch in memory of child victims of the February 6 the earthquake.

The protest, which took place during the match, follows that of fans from fellow Istanbul club Fenerbah�e at their stadium on Saturday.

"Government, resign!" was the chant as Besiktas played out a 0-0 draw with Antalyaspor.

Fenerbahce fans voiced similar sentiments following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that claimed over 44,000 victims in Turkey.

"Twenty years of lies and cheating, resign," Fenerbahce fans chanted during their 4-0 win over Konyaspor.

Opponents of the Turkish government have criticised what they feel is an inadequate response from the ruling authorities to the natural disaster

Presidential and parliamentary elections are due to take place on May 14.

Besiktas supporters are reputed to be closer to the opposition than to Recep Tayyip Edogan's ruling coalition.

But chants of this kind became rarer after Erdogan cracked down in the wake of the failed coup against him in 2016.

Devlet Bahceli, head of the nationalist MHP party, the junior partner in Erdogan's governing coalition, called for authorities to have matches played behind closed doors if there were more such chants.

Wave of support for Turkish father who lost daughter in quake
Ankara (AFP) Feb 26, 2023 - A photo of a father holding his daughter's hand killed in Turkey's February 6 earthquake has provoked an outpouring of sympathy and support from around the world, he told AFP.

Around three weeks after the disaster that killed more then 44,000 people in Turkey and thousands more in neighbouring Syria, AFP photographer Adem Altan tracked down Mesut Hancer in the capital Ankara.

He had moved there from Kahramanmaras, near the epicentre of the quake.

As well as his daughter, lost under the ruins of an eight-storey block of flats, "I lost my mother, my brothers, my nephews in the quake," said Hancer.

"But nothing compares to burying a child. The pain is indescribable."

The image of Hancer wearing an orange jacket against the cold and rain while holding his daughter's hand emerging from the rubble, was published on many newspaper front pages and seen millions of times online.

It became a symbol of a disaster that devastated tens of thousands of lives, drawing special attention to his family.

Now, a businessman has offered the former baker an administrative job at a TV channel and given the family an apartment in Ankara.

Meanwhile a painting of Hancer's daughter Irmak as an angel alongside her father, donated by an artist, hangs in their living room.

"I couldn't let go of her hand. My daughter was sleeping like an angel in her bed," he recalled.

- Waiting for help -

Hancer was working in his bakery when the quake hit at 4:17 am (0117 GMT).

Calling home, he found his wife and three adult children were safe at home in their one-storey house, although it was damaged as the earth shook.

But no-one could reach Irmak, the youngest, who had stayed the night at her grandmother's house.

She had planned to spend time with cousins visiting from Istanbul and Hatay.

Rushing to his mother's building, Hancer found the eight-storey block collapsed into a mound of rubble.

In the middle, amid the debris of everyday life, was his daughter.

Waiting more than a day before any rescue team arrived, Hancer and other local people tried to find their loved ones under the ruins themselves, even trying -- and failing -- to shift concrete blocks by hand.

Unable to recover Irmak's body, he remained sat by her side.

"I held her hand, I stroked her hair, I kissed her cheeks," he recalls.

Later, he saw Adem Altan taking photos of the scene.

"Take pictures of my child," he said in a quiet, broken voice.

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