Turkish students at SU propel relief efforts after historic earthquakes

By Dominic Chiappone asst. news editor

In the aftermath of two earthquakes in Turkey and Syria last week, Ahmet Celik said his home country of Turkey will never be the same. The earthquakes, both with Richter scale magnitudes over seven, have left over 41,000 dead in the two countries.

Celik, a member of Syracuse University’s Turkish Student Association working to collect aid for the country, said impact goes beyond the destruction on land.

“Almost every Turkish (person) everywhere around the world, either their friends, their families, somehow their loved ones (are) affected. So they all felt very deeply the pain of this,” Celik said.

The earthquakes hit just hours apart on Monday in the city of Kahramanmaraş in southeastern Turkey and in northern Syria. With over 35,000 confirmed deaths and rescue efforts still under- way, the Feb. 6 earthquake is now the deadliest in Turkey’s history, surpassing the death toll of the 1939 Erzincan earthquake which killed around 33,000 people. Celik said he expects the death toll will rise between 50,000 to 100,000 as searches continue. graduate students

Amid the destruction, Turkish students at SU are working with university students, faculty and administration to create initiatives to provide support for those directly and indirectly affected by the earthquake.

Celik, a PhD student in SU’s Department of Religion, said he has multiple family members, including his mother and sister, who currently live in Diyarbakır near where the earthquake struck. In the wake of the disaster, Celik said Turkey is at a turning point in its national history.

Through work with SU’s administration and students, TSA President Ibrahim Kizil said the group coordinated Friday’s campuswide message directly with Gretchen Ritter, SU’s vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer.

TSA also organized tabling at the Schine Student Center and Bird Library to encourage the university community to donate money for relief efforts via a GoFundMe, Kizil said. The fundraiser, which TSA member Ilayda Ova worked to create, has received over $7,000 for necessities like tents, food and medical assistance.

Ova, also a PhD candidate in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said the earthquake affected an area of Turkey with at least 13 million people out of the nation’s total population of 83 million, ultimately over 15% of Turkey’s population. This includes 4.6 million children in Turkey and an additional 2.5 million children from Syria, according to UNICEF.