Anadolu Agency's Experience in Adana during Turkiye Quake Proves Night Shift Essential to News Agencies' Regional Offices

Diana Dukovska

BTA Director General Kiril Valchev (left) and Ibrahim Erikan, Anadolu Agency's Regional Manager in Adana, November 6, 2023 (BTA Photo)

Adana, Southern Turkiye,

07.11.2023 15:16

(BTA)

A journalist working the night shift at the Anadolu Agency's regional office in Adana takes credit for the timely coverage when the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkiye and Syria at 4.17 a.m. on February 6, 2023, killing nearly 60,000 people, of whom more than 50,000 in Turkiye. This emerged from Monday's meeting between Ibrahim Erikan, Anadolu Agency's Regional Manager in Adana, and Kiril Valchev, Director General of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), which took place at the regional office in this southern Turkish city.

Valchev noted that BTA would tap this experience so as to ensure a quick reaction in emergencies. The teams of correspondents in the cities could have people on-call on a 24-hour standby schedule, ready to provide timely information to all media outlets.

The regional office in Adana has 37 staff and 26 freelancers. Nineteen staff members work in Adana, eight in Mersin, six in Hatay and four in Osmaniye.

Valchev offered condolences for the death of Anadolu Agency correspondent Burak Milli in Hatay Province. Erikan said the quake claimed 28,000 lives there, and now the news agency's local office is housed in a metal container.

After meeting on Sunday with Kerem Kocalar, Regional Manager of the Anadolu Agency in Gaziantep (South Central Turkiye), Valchev said that a modern news agency should rely on teams, not just on one correspondent in regional centres, and should aim to have freelancers in each municipality as the Anadolu Agency does.

Meeting with Erikan and Kocalar, Valchev said that BTA opened a permanent correspondent bureau in Ankara shortly before the earthquake, and that BTA correspondent Nora Cholakova provided coverage in the first hours after the disaster. The heads of the Anadolu Agency offices in Gaziantep and Adana suggested that Cholakova use those offices when covering events in the region. Erikan promised to help BTA get in contact with the organization of Bulgarians in Adana.

Valchev underlined the excellent cooperation between BTA and the Anadolu Agency, including in the Association of the Balkan News Agencies - Southeast Europe (ABNA-SE), which has its seat in Sofia. Kiril Valchev is Secretary General of ABNA-SE and Anadolu's Director General Serdar Karagoz is its President. The two news agencies also cooperate within the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) and MINDS International (Media Innovation Network).

"I took the opportunity to learn from Anadolu Agency's experience and to express empathy to my colleagues in Gaziantep and Adana between the two events at the BTA National Press Club in Ankara - a joint exhibition of artists Yasar Ali Gunes and Ivan Milushev titled Closeness, which opened on November 1, Bulgaria's National Awakeners Day, and a November 7 meeting on "Culture and Education: A Bridge between Bulgaria and Turkiye", which will take place before Sofia Opera and Ballet's Tosca performances in Ankara on November 8 and Istanbul on November 11, mottoed "Bulgaria congratulates Turkiye: Happy centenary of the Republic!," Valchev said after the meetings.

In his view, the coincidence of the November 5 second round of the local elections in Bulgaria and the professional meetings held in the areas of the devastating earthquake in Turkiye is a sign that "we should not think only locally". Similarly, meetings with Bulgarians who suffer from the war in Ukraine were held at BTA's National Press Club in Odesa on October 29, the Day of Bessarabian Bulgarians. "We in Bulgaria should be grateful that we have the opportunity to hold peaceful elections, just as we should be grateful that we can hold these elections without God putting us through severe trials like the earthquake in Turkiye. We should pray that elected mayors never have to deal with the aftermath of such natural disasters," Valchev said.

/DD/