Turkey Earthquake: Restaurant owner says relatives are sleeping in their cars and asks people to 'pray for Turkey'

Gul Akgum, 48, owner of the family business Taste Of Turkey, told the Post about how relatives in Adana, Turkey, are sleeping in their cars in the aftermath of the country’s deadliest natural disaster in over a decade.

More than 17,000 lives are now known to have been lost in southern Turkey and northern Syria after the first 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck just before dawn on Monday (January 6).

International aid charities and government organisations have mobilised rescue and recovery efforts, with British firefighters, including six from Lancashire, travelling to the country to help.

Rescue workers continued to pull living people from the damaged homes but hope was starting to fade amid freezing temperatures almost a week since the quake hit.

It comes after the president of Turkey acknowledged “shortcomings” in his country’s response to the world’s deadliest earthquake in more than a decade.

‘We started to call everyone’

Owners of the family-run Turkish restaurant on Station Road, ‘Taste of Turkey’, have called on people in the community to send their ‘love, prayers and donations’ to the country devastated by the quake.

Gul Akgum, who runs the restaurant with her husband Hakan Akgum said that their close relatives live in Adana, a city in Southern Turkey where temperatures have reached -3 celsius.

Gul said: “We heard from the TV about the earthquake and we started to call everyone every hour and thankfully the mobile connection was working. We call them on Whatsapp and they are crying because it's really cold.

“It's minus 3 in the city of Adana, we haven't seen such cold weather like that and people really need help. They need blankets, mattresses, hats and coats.

"They are all sleeping outside and in cars or vans because they can't go inside their homes because of all the aftershock and because the government is saying do not enter your houses or buildings.”

‘I would ask people to pray for Turkey’

After moving to Preston from Istanbul in 2019, Gul and Akam left their brothers, sisters and other relatives in Turkey. Thankfully, the couple’s family survived Monday’s devastating earthquake.

Gul said: “It's a real humanitarian catastrophe. Adana is a large city with so many villages and I know there are a lot of people dead already. It will be rising and there's so much damage to all of the buildings.”

The family are asking people to donate things to a collection point in Manchester where they are sending items to the earthquake area via Turkish Airlines. The location of the donation point is: Senol&Senol Ltd Goss Outdoor M17 1UP. The last date of arrival of items to the warehouse is on February 10, at 16.00. All warm clothing donations are needed.

Gul said: “I would love to ask people to please pray for Turkey and if you can just donate, every penny can help, even just a little.”

Road closures and damage in the region made it hard to access all the areas that need help, he said, and there was a shortage of rescuers where he was.

The region was already beset by more than a decade of civil war in Syria.

You can donate to the Red Cross here.