Turkish UTC student describes horrors of earthquake

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Portions of Southern Turkey and Northern Syria were devastated by a violent earthquake earlier this week.

Relief efforts are ongoing across the world to help those affected.

Over 22,000 people have been confirmed dead since a series of earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria late Sunday night into Monday.

The initial earthquake was a monster 7.8 on the Richter scale and was followed by countless aftershocks including a 7.5 earthquake 10 hours later.

These earthquakes have caused great suffering in the region.

Dogu Sahin is currently pursuing his master’s degree at UTC.

He is from Turkey and wants to spread the message of how much his fellow countrymen need our help.

Sahin said, “I couldn’t describe the destruction. We still can’t reach the rural areas. They still can’t reach them.”

The destruction from 6,000 miles away is all too close to home for Turkish-Americans like Sahin.

Sahin describes, “There’s still a lot of dead bodies under the rubble. These are regions that are very populated, and they are ancient regions, have been populated since the beginning of civilization.”

Ancient landmarks such as the Gaziantep Castle, built by the Romans in the second century A.D., are completely gone.

The castle is located in the center of Gaziantep, a city of nearly two million, which was just roughly 30 miles from the epicenter of the 7.8 earthquake that has violently disrupted life in that region.

It is not just the earthquakes that are causing heartache.

Sahin said, “Right now, the winter conditions are very harsh, people don’t have proper shelter, people don’t have proper food, people don’t have even bathrooms.”

Dogu’s family is located in another portion of Turkey away from the epicenter of this earthquake,

From his time in the capital of Ankara, he has many friends directly affected by this disaster.

He says there is a way you can help these victims via the Turkish Philanthropy Fund.

UTC master’s student Dogu Sahin, Turkey native

Sahin said, “They have a fundraising campaign called the Türkiye Earthquake Relief Fund. They have a goal of collecting ten million dollars and see you can see the progress right now.”

He says, despite the distance, a disaster of this magnitude affects us all.

Sahin pleads, “We need to be together, because this earthquake has no borders, no limitations, a humanitarian thing.”

Dogu said he is grateful for the international help Turkey has received so far.

As of Friday afternoon nearly six million dollars out of the ten million dollar goal has been raised.