Fundraising campaign for quake-hit Türkiye collects nearly $45M in donations

By Emre Asikci

ISTANBUL (AA) - A fundraising campaign for the victims of last month’s devastating earthquakes in Türkiye received 845.7 million Turkish liras ($44.8 million) from benefactors on the first day of the event.

Famous sports figures such as Kylian Mbappe, Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola, Ruud Gullit, Mikel Arteta and Arsene Wenger supported the 'shoulder-to-shoulder’ fundraising campaign, which is set to run until June 15.

European Club Association (ECA) and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi also donated over $2 million to Türkiye quake victims.

The "shoulder-to-shoulder" fundraising campaign is organized by Türkiye's Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Turkish Football Federation, the Turkish Union of Clubs and beIN Media Group and was moderated by Turkish TV icon Acun Ilicali.

In addition to TV channels affiliated with beIN, the program was aired live by the Turkish broadcasters A Sports, SportsTV, D Smart Sports, S Sport, Tivibu Sports, TRT Spor, TV8 and Club televisions, TRT Radio, Radio Gol, Radyospor and League Radyo.

More than 45,000 people have died in the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes on Feb. 6, which were centered in Kahramanmaras and struck 10 other provinces – Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa and Elazig.