By Honorary Reporter Volga Serin Suleymanoglu from Turkiye (Turkey)

Becoming a Korea.net Honorary Reporter brought about many changes in my life - I have had some very proud moments and have been rewarded for my hard work. After the two devastating earthquakes of magnitudes 7.7 and 7.6 occurred in Turkiye on Feb. 6, a Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) comprised of 118 members arrived in the country’s city of Hatay. Following a two-week search-and-rescue mission, the team returned to Seoul via Incheon airport on Feb. 17 after departing from Sakirpasa Airport in Adana.

Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) members conduct search-and-rescue activities in Antakya, Turkiye. (KDRT)

I am also a member of the Turkiye-Korea Solidarity Platform, which was established through a social media group after the earthquake. It is a voluntary platform promoting Korea and its culture, and connecting people from Korea and Turkiye who have business connections.

We aim to convey the devastating situation caused by the earthquakes in Turkiye to institutions approved of by the Korean and Turkish embassies, and by sharing this on social media in Korean to facilitate donations and aid from Korea.

The platform wanted to make a thank you video for the Korean aid team members who we knew were returning to their home country on Feb. 17. So overnight, everyone we got involved took out their cameras and recorded a contribution. We prepared a text for the video and translated it from Turkish to Korean. The 12 people from our team who took part in creating the video, forwarded their contributions to a friend in our group who edited them together.

The writer appears on the thank you video. (Volga Serin Suleymanoglu)

The pilot and Korean embassy staff review the video before airing it for the Korea Disaster Relief Team. (Professor M. Ertan Gokmen)

The finished video was then sent to Dr. M. Ertan Gokmen, a professor of Korean Language and Literature at Ankara University, who was in Adana with the KDRT and Korean embassy staff.

Thanks to the cooperation of the pilot and the embassy, the video was aired on the plane to the 118 members of the team.

Korea Disaster Relief Team (KDRT) members become emotional while watching the thank you video produced by the Turkiye-Korea Solidarity Platform. (KDRT)

I didn’t realize how big the thing we had done was until the video went viral, and we were able to see the reaction of the team members live on social media. When I saw the release of emotions and their tears from watching our video, I finally let go of the tears I had been holding back for such a long time.

Major news channels in Turkiye and Korea shared our video and the emotional moments of the Korea Disaster Relief Team members. (Left) TRT News Turkey State Channel on Feb. 18. (Right) KBS News' official YouTube channel on Feb. 19.

kalhong617@korea.kr 

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.