Why Nasuh Mahruki?

Not only Beşiktaş, but the entire country needs the spirit of Nasuh…

I was a reporter for Hürriyet newspaper during the 1999 Gölcük earthquake. It was before dawn; first, there was a terrifying sound from beneath the earth. As the ground shook with the feeling that it was being pulled out from under my feet accompanied by a strange roar, I grabbed my son from his bed in a panic and ran toward the door. We were living in Ayazpaşa. Doing everything one shouldn't do, I carried my baby down the apartment stairs during the tremor, and we gathered at the apartment entrance with our neighbors. When I got to the newspaper, the images coming from the region were horrifying.

Because I was a new mother, I was assigned as the duty reporter. I couldn't go to the region. While I was reporting on the photos coming from Yalova, Gölcük, İzmit, Avcılar, and Beylikdüzü, and the painful human stories of the destruction until morning at the newspaper, it was painful to try to find the ones without blood and to make an effort not to show children with severed legs or arms. But at the same time, I witnessed the greatest form of solidarity firsthand.

Turkey's first civilian search and rescue team, AKUT, was performing miracles in the disaster zone with its 150 volunteers. In a very short time, they saved the lives of over 200 of our people with tireless effort.

A group of professional mountaineers had founded AKUT three years before the 1999 earthquake, coming together after an unfortunate mountain accident. It was founded with the pain of two university students who could not be found for 14 days in the Bolkar Mountains. Turkey's first Search and Rescue association, AKUT, and its founder, Nasuh Mahruki, became the heroes of the '99 earthquake. The AKUT wind blew so strongly that thousands of young people who realized the importance of the spirit of volunteerism in saving lives joined AKUT.

Having a child who was an AKUT volunteer was a source of pride for families. It became the most trusted name in Turkey after the Turkish Armed Forces.

With unconditional love for humanity, love for the homeland, a sense of compassion, the urge to help those in need, the morality of doing what is right, and the unwavering consciousness of being a responsible citizen, he became one of our country's most valuable role models. Being an AKUT volunteer became synonymous with providing unconditional trust. By anticipating the need in search and rescue, he changed the perspectives and approaches of many NGOs, as well as public and private sector organizations, toward search and rescue through his organized work. He changed the mentality. He also became a pioneer for new breakthroughs.

Like many people, I broke my inexperience from the '99 earthquake with AKUT. As a journalist, I learned DISASTER awareness from AKUT.

Nasuh Mahruki and his team saved the lives of hundreds of people not only in the '99 earthquake but also in the major earthquake that occurred in India.

The Foreign Minister of the time, İsmail Cem, describes AKUT with these sentences;

“Since the Marmara and Düzce earthquakes, you have dedicated yourselves to helping people and bringing them back to life in disasters that have occurred in various countries. You have shown valuable examples of your efforts in India, most recently, on this path you have chosen of your own free will, in the light of the noble values that make a human being human. Your presence and successes representing Turkey in an environment where few search and rescue teams were operating have been a source of honor for us. I congratulate the entire AKUT team, wish you continued success, and offer my best wishes.”

**

Exactly 24 years after the '99 earthquake, Turkey was shaken by a much larger disaster. As the Turkish people, we experienced the greatest destruction in the history of the Republic. Two major earthquakes centered in Maraş occurred one after another. Unfortunately, aid was very delayed. Only a fraction of the lives that could have been saved were saved.

The Armed Forces could not intervene for the first 3 days. Because the government had withdrawn the DAFYAR plans from the army's hands and had assigned AFAD as the sole authority in search and rescue. Because the armed forces were not involved in search and rescue for the first three days, we could not use our existing human rescue capacity. The organized support that requires acting with fast, accurate, and effective planning was also missing in the critical first 12 and 24 hours!

However, in the '99 earthquake, the army was in the earthquake zone from the very first moment. Unfortunately, the government withdrew from the EMASYA (Security, Public Order, and Assistance) Protocol and DAFYAR (Natural Disaster Assistance) plans. The authority to intervene in disasters had been taken away from the armed forces, which should have arrived at the scene at the moment of a disaster. While people were screaming for help, even the nearest gendarmerie could not intervene for the first three days. Because they were not authorized!

AKUT was also weakened over time. Nasuh Mahruki resigned from the Presidency of the AKUT Search and Rescue Association in 2016. 2.5 years later, he bid farewell to the Honorary Presidency of the AKUT Association.

In the greatest disaster we faced in 2022, the people of Maraş, Malatya, and Hatay were left alone. Go to the region and see… The cemeteries of the nameless stretching for kilometers tell so much!

And now, the major Istanbul earthquake is next. Experts say that the expected Istanbul earthquake will definitely happen—today, tomorrow, or perhaps years later. While I was saying that we are worried about Istanbul every passing day and that it is getting too late, Nasuh announcing his candidacy for the Beşiktaş Mayoralty gave me hope. Nasuh has been explaining for years that preparations must be made for the earthquake awaiting Marmara, but no one listens to him. Fortunately, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) listened to Nasuh, and after the February 6 earthquake, training for 5,000 assembly area volunteers was provided together with AKOM.

On his life's journey, which he set out on with the principle of “Unconditional Altruism,” Nasuh Mahruki has once again put his hand under the stone. As a 4th-generation resident of Beşiktaş, he said, “I am a candidate for the BEŞİKTAŞ Mayoralty from the CHP,” to pass on the AKUT spirit to the people of Beşiktaş before the earthquake this time. Nasuh Mahruki's Beşiktaş mayoral candidacy is very important not only for Istanbulites but for Turkey.

I know this: If Nasuh Mahruki is elected Mayor of Beşiktaş, that wind created by Nasuh and AKUT in 1999—the “sense of unconditional mutual aid,” organized solidarity, merit, and the spirit of volunteerism—will spread from Beşiktaş to all of Turkey… Not only Beşiktaş, but the entire country needs the spirit of Nasuh…