ANKARA

For an Azerbaijani man who became a symbol of solidarity with quake-hit Türkiye, it was an utmost honor to go to the country and shake hands with its president, Sarvar Bashirli told Anadolu.

Bashirli rushed to the province of Adiyaman in eastern Türkiye after the twin back-to-back earthquakes shook the region early last month, personally volunteering to help victims among the debris of collapsed buildings.

A photo of him driving through the streets of Azerbaijan's capital Baku in his decrepit car, bowing under the weight of several thick blankets and other supplies he collected to help the survivors as a Turkish flag fluttered on its roof, went viral in Türkiye and other parts of the world soon after the quakes.

"It is very difficult to express my feelings when I met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan," Bashirli told Anadolu, adding that he met Erdogan as the Turkish leader was inspecting the container homes where survivors of the deadly earthquakes were temporarily staying.

"I had lots of emotions at that moment. I was very excited. I could barely speak. This is a great honor and pride for me as a man from Karabakh to go to Türkiye and shake the hand of the Turkish president," he said.

Ever since last month's powerful quakes, social media in Türkiye has been bursting with calls for help and messages of solidarity for the millions impacted in the country’s southern parts.

Still, one particular photo has garnered attention like no other, becoming a symbol of the international solidarity that has poured out in the wake of the devastating disaster, which has now claimed more than 45,000 lives in 11 Turkish provinces — Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Hatay, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.

That photo is of a clunker that has clearly seen better days, with a Turkish flag hoisted on it, loaded to the brim with relief supplies.

The driver of the vehicle, a model manufactured in 1981, was Bashirli, an internally displaced person from Karabakh — Azerbaijan's region which has been under illegal Armenian occupation for nearly three decades — who inadvertently inspired an entire legion of volunteers to do their bit for the earthquake victims.

The photo has been viral on social media, drawing millions of likes and messages of praise.

Bashirli said he came to Türkiye with the support of Huseyin Buyukfirat, head of the Turkish-Azerbaijan Businessmen and Industrialists Association (TUIB,) expressing his gratefulness to the association for arranging the trip to the quake-hit region.

"I also brought along my two cousins with me and all together we did what we could. We did our best in Türkiye to support the people in some way," he said.

"We helped with pitching tents and in delivering and distributing clothes, food, heaters, and stoves in the villages."

Bashirli underlined that as TUIB's volunteers in the region, he and his cousins distributed aid from Azerbaijan.

"We were providing people in the villages living in tents with whatever they needed. The aid was coming with trucks to the distribution points and we helped to distribute it to earthquake victims," he said.

More than 13 million people in Türkiye have been affected by the quakes as well as many in northwestern Syria.