After the start of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, locals and foreigners living in Ukraine are leaving the country. People who come to the Moldovan border by public transport and vehicles pass to Moldova after a long wait at the border. Those who cross the border are greeted with catering by the hospitable local people in Moldova.
Turks who left Ukraine and came to Moldova are also returning to Turkey. Turkish citizens who came to the border told about their experiences. Describing the difficulties he experienced at the border, Tugay Karademir said, “We have been trying to follow up for about 2 weeks to return. We requested an early evacuation, but it did not happen. Thank God we were able to leave Ukraine, but we experienced unpleasant events. I lost my phone to the Ukrainian soldiers and I was beaten. It was claimed that I took a video, although I did not shoot a video. We starved for a long time, we couldn’t find food. We somehow survived. We have friends and nephews left. They stay at metro stations, they stay in shelters,” he said.
Samet Direk, who advised the survivors to leave Ukraine and get rid of it as soon as possible, said, “People have difficulties to come here. They go through many stages. There were people lying on the ground in the corridor on the train. We want them to come. We are trying to make our voice heard from here. That’s all we want,” he said.
Stating that they had to change places 3 times in a day because of the bombardment, Oktay Yıldırım said, “We are going through very difficult conditions. We also pray for it to get better, but there are events we unintentionally experience. Attacks still continue. We experienced events very close to us, whether it was a bomb or a conflict or not. Frankly, we experienced things we have never experienced before,” he explained the seriousness of the situation.
Bekir Keskin