Owner of Turkish Best Kebab in Spalding speaks of destruction he witnessed in Turkey after earthquake

A distressed and anxious takeaway owner travelled to Turkey to rescue people from the rubble in the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit his homeland.

Durdu Mert, of Turkish Best Kebab in Winsover Road, Spalding, temporarily shut his business and went with three others to Kahramanmaras, the centre of the earthquake, to help the relief effort.

Durdu has described witnessing the ‘struggle to survive’ and his agonising effort to rehome families, children and the elderly among the millions left homeless by the natural disaster.

“Everything is destroyed, people are in the street and they can’t believe the city has been destroyed,” he said.

“You want to cry but you try hard to be strong so that people don’t see you cry. You make an effort to see smiles on their faces even for a moment.

“We had to do this to help them.”

Durdu closed the takeaway’s doors and travelled to the country in early February just hours after the first earthquake struck.

The latest death toll suggests 47,000 people were killed with thousands still missing - and another earthquake brought further devastation on Monday.

“We are very tired and sleep deprived because of the work we have done,” Durdu said.

“My brothers live there but in different cities, but we have family members and acquaintances in earthquake affected places. I felt anxiety like everyone else about them.

“You forget everything in that moment. There were casualties from every house.

“You try to protect and save children, women and old people first.

“You can’t eat when you see someone is hungry and you can’t sleep because hundreds of people are under the rubble and in cold tents.

“But I would have done it even if there was no trace of my family or acquaintances. I want no one to experience such a disaster but I would do it again to help people in need.”

Durdu returned to the UK a few days ago and will never forget what he saw while helping the effort to save as many people as possible.

He said: “This disaster could have happened to any of us. We helped families and people as much as we could.

“It was literally a struggle to survive.

“It was cold and a psychologically disturbing situation.

“The state and the nation were helping very quickly and safely but we also helped with our own means

“We placed two people with Alzheimers disease, a child with congenial heart disease in new places and settled seven families into their new accommodation.

“It made us proud to see them happy, even if only a little bit.

“Life is too short. You see that money and material wealth are not real and that they suddenly disappear.

“One wants a warm hug, seeks true love and a true friend.

“Nobody goes away with goods from this world.”

The takeaway reopened on Tuesday but Durdu is hopeful that his customers weren’t too put out by its closure.

He said: “While our workplace is closed, we will have financial loss and maybe customer loss but the important thing is human life comes first.

“Maybe we will lose customers but helping a person, saving a child, putting someone in a warm home, helping a mother, giving someone hot soup is more important. We did what every human should do.

“I’m sure everyone has followed this story from the beginning and aid depends on personal experience, but I ask them to accept the time that our workplace has been closed with understanding.

“The earthquakes still continue and while we have opened our shop again, our hearts are still with the victims

“We see religion, language, origin and colour is not important but every human as a human. We love people very much.”

* If you want to donate, you can visit the British Red Cross website or call 0300 004 0339.