Fenerbahce have pledged to help with disaster relief efforts following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that killed over 1,200 people in Turkey and Syria on Monday.
The earthquake, which struck around 04:00 local time and had its epicentre in the southern Kahramanmaras province, killed 912 people in Turkey alone, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while Syria’s state news agency put the death toll at 320.
Erdogan also put the number of injured at 5,383, but both figures are still rising, with the Kandilli observatory and earthquake research center recording more than 100 aftershocks.
“About 53 of them over four [on the Richter scale],” Dr Haluk Ozener is quoted as saying by the BBC.
Adana and Gaziantep – the latter being only 20 miles from the epicentre – are among the major cities hit by the quake, which was also felt as far away as Cyprus.
Istanbul-based Fener, one of Turkey’s biggest football clubs, are in talks to help in the relief effort as they look to mobilise their members, who they say form the biggest organisation of its kind in the country.
“We are with our country. Our club has started work for the earthquake,” read a statement on social media.
“Our club is getting ready to take steps after the earthquake disaster, which was felt in many cities, especially in Kahramanmaras, including in Hatay, Gaziantep, Adana, Osmaniye, Diyarbakır, Malatya and Sanlıurfa, and left the whole of Turkey with sadness.
“As Turkey’s largest ‘civil society organisation’, Fenerbahce Sports Club, which has stood by its country and its citizens, has immediately started to work to take the most beneficial steps in the face of today’s national disaster.
“We state that we will stand by our citizens in disaster areas with the action plan we will determine as a result of the negotiations.”
Fellow Turkish giants Galatasaray published a list of required items and asked for donations to be handed in at the Ali Sami Yen Sports Complex, with sleeping bags, thermal blankets and baby food among the requested articles.
