Turkish man living in Perth worried how his family are faring in earthquake-devastated Gaziantep
14.02.2023 - 17:03
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
A Perth businessman is trying to arrange for aid collections for Turkey to be left at his city kebab shop.
Turkish-born Erol Yazgan (41) has been in Scotland for 19 years. He lives in Tulloch, is married to a Perth woman and together they have two children.
But his whole wider family are in Gaziantep, the very centre of the devastating earthquake that killed over 32,000 people just over a week ago.
His mother and father, brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces were sleeping in Gaziantep when the horrifying earthquake woke them on Monday, February 6. Thankfully they are all alive and uninjured, but now homeless.
Some of the family are sheltering in the local school hall which is single storey, but others like his sister are sheltering in a metal container, packed in with around 50 children and adults without water or sanitation.
“My sister Tugba is divorced, she has two daughters 17 and 13 and a son,” he said. “They are feeling more aftershocks every few hours. On Sunday night many of the people in the container thought they would go and sleep in nearby damaged buildings because of the crowding and the cold. She had the children so she stayed put.
“But the others returned in a panic at 7am after another aftershock came and they feared more buildings would collapse.
“They have very little food although some is starting to get through - it is not enough. Above all they are cold, bitterly cold. It is - 3 during the day and -12 at night. They need blankets/baby food/ baby nappies urgently.”
His brother Musa, a bus driver in Gaziantep, has been sleeping in a bus since the quake happened. It has been snowing but he feels safer there than in damaged buildings.
Erol added that another Fair City friend, Perth-based mobile barber Ali Sizgen,