In Gaziantep, love bloomed in the midst of earthquake rubble
Al Jazeera
A Syrian and Ulrainian refugee met in Turkey, fell in love, and decided to be together forever after the quake.
Gaziantep, Turkey – A few hours after the first massive earthquake that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria last year, Ahmad Nached decided to marry his partner, Anna Rudnichenko.
Ahmad, 30, and Anna, 23, were asleep in their old eighth-floor apartment when the first tremors woke them from a deep sleep.
The two massive earthquakes, which struck a few hours apart, killed more than 50,000 people in both countries. The couple, who hail from Syria and Ukraine respectively, assumed that the noise and destruction were an air raid, a familiar occurrence for them.
It took them a few minutes to realise it was an earthquake, which neither of them had ever experienced in their lives.
From their cosy home in Gaziantep, as they talk about the last details of their first Valentine’s Day as husband and wife, they explain they had never talked about marriage before the tragedy.
