AKUT is entirely a voluntary, non-governmental organization involved in searching, assisting and rescuing all who require aid within its authority and means, in mountain or other nature-related accidents, natural disasters and all other emergency conditions by means of trained, disciplined, high-standard personnel and equipment, passing on knowledge to society with no political affiliation." The 1994 rescue operation of two mountaineers in the Bolkar Mountains in southern Turkey is forever etched in the memory of a number of the founding members of AKUT. Despite the good-will efforts of the locals, the Gendarmerie, the Mountain Climbers Federation and several other mountaineers, the rescue operation ended in disappointment. This failure led a group of pioneering mountaineers to think about how search and rescue activities could be conducted in an effective and efficient manner. AKUT has an administrative structure in accordance with the legal definition of a democratic civil society association, but also enshrines its overarching mission within its bylaws. AKUT’s values are: volunteerism, integrity, reliability, helpfulness/humanitarianism, and respect for human life. With an organizational structure that allows it to react rapidly to a wide variety of emergency situations, AKUT has the ability to make quick decisions in the face of crisis.