On board TCG Sanchaktar: Eyup Sabri Kyrgyzstan gathered his family, pets and other loved ones and left his beloved city of Beirut with a heavy heart after two weeks of deadly airstrikes that traumatized his family.
The 50-year-old Turkish engineer, who moved to the Lebanese capital 21 years ago, lived in the Ain Roumaneh neighborhood near Beirut’s southern suburbs. The area, known as Dahiyeh, has been the target of heavy Israeli airstrikes amid the escalating civil war. A war in the Middle East, this time between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
“For the past two weeks, we felt like a bomb was going off in our house,” said Kyrgyzstan, who was among hundreds of people with his Lebanese wife, two children and mother-in-law. said. They were evacuated from Lebanon on Thursday aboard two Turkish navy ships.
“There was no sleep or anything. We just sat until morning. We can only sleep when the drones are gone. In any case, it is impossible to sleep while listening to those drones.” told The Associated Press on board the TCG Sanchakuta. The Associated Press was the only non-governmental media invited on board to cover the evacuation effort.
It was a year of war. Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel from Lebanon on October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel that led to Israeli attacks in Gaza, and Israel and Hezbollah have continued attacks since then. There is. But since fighting escalated in mid-September, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in Lebanon.
The approximately 1,000 evacuees (mainly Turkish nationals and their spouses) on board the TCG Sancaktar and its sister landing ship, the TCG Bayraktar, took a nap in camp beds surrounded by the few belongings they could bring with them. or sitting. Aid workers on board handed out sandwiches and snacks during the 12-hour voyage to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Mersin.
Previous Turkish government statistics had estimated the number of people to be evacuated to be close to 2,000. A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations, said some people who had expressed interest in leaving did not show up.
Kyrgyzstan spent most of the trip caring for her dogs, Bella and Ammun, and her pet turtle, Koko, who was kept in a shoe box, trying not to disturb the sleeping passengers.
The air was stuffy, making the journey uncomfortable at times.
A 75-year-old passenger on the ship suffered a heart attack during the voyage and was evacuated by helicopter to Northern Cyprus. He later died at a hospital, security officials said.
Kyrgyzstan, who describes herself as a “Beirut lover”, said she hopes to return to Beirut soon.
“I’m going to see how things go in a week or 10 days. I’m going to wait until things calm down a little bit more and then when I think it’s no longer dangerous, I’ll go back, because I love this place. And after that… (The plan is) to bring back our families and children,” Kyrgyzstan said.
Turkish-born Dilbar Taleb and her Lebanese-born husband Ahmad, who lives in Australia, were on holiday in Lebanon when the conflict escalated. They had been spending time with Ahmad’s parents to get to know their young grandson, Khaldun.
Although their neighborhood was not targeted by Israeli attacks, the couple seized the opportunity to leave Lebanon.
“You’re worried every day. When you’re stressed, you’re worried that something will happen, that the road will be blocked, that something will be bombed. That’s why he wanted to leave Lebanon as soon as possible,” Dilbar Taleb said.
Her husband seemed distressed at having to leave his parents behind.
“My parents, they are just Lebanese (nationals), not Turkish or Australian citizens like us,” he said. “But I hope in the future I can take them to Turkiye or Australia, because I can’t keep living under this stress.”
Also on board the ship were Gonkaguru Udigwe, her Nigerian husband Callistos, and their seven-month-old daughter Hilda. They had moved to Lebanon just five months earlier, where he was running his own business.
As her family waited to board a ship in Beirut, she said her family decided to leave Lebanon because they feared it would become “a second Gaza.” When she spoke again to Associated Press reporters after disembarking in Mersin, she felt a sudden sense of relief.
“Now I’m very happy to be safely reunited (with Tolkier). I’m on my own land, I feel safe and I feel at peace.”
Oudigwe continued: “But of course I feel very sorry for the people who have to stay there (Lebanon) because it’s not a good situation at all. They’re sleeping on the sidewalks and in their cars. So it’s very It’s difficult. I’ve never seen anything like this before. I’ve never experienced anything like this in my country.”
The ship returned to Turkiye late Thursday or early Friday. The exhausted passengers were taken by bus to another area of the port and cleared through immigration.
The two vessels were part of a six-vessel convoy that departed from Mersin on Wednesday, carrying around 300 tons of humanitarian aid to Lebanon, including food, tents and blankets. Associated Press reporters on board the Sanchactor heard the sound of a drone flying over the ship as relief supplies were unloaded and evacuees boarded.
