Turkey campaign raises $6 billion for earthquake relief

A Turkish fund-raising campaign has raised more than $6 billion (115.1 billion Turkish liras) for victims of last week's devastating earthquakes, according to Anadolu Agency. 

Several television channels joined forces to hold the Türkiye One Heart campaign. Donors included politicians, companies, state institutions and individual citizens. 

Eight channels join hands in unprecedented live broadcast campaign "Türkiye One Heart", collecting more than $6 billion for the welfare of survivors. pic.twitter.com/LY1ICtZT9A

— Türkiye_Pics 🇹🇷 (@Turkey_Pics) February 16, 2023

Turkey’s Central Bank was the biggest donor, pledging $1.6 billion, while other banks such as Ziraat and Vakif promised $1 billion and $637 million respectively.

The country’s flagship carrier Turkish Airlines and defense firm Baykar contributed $106 million each (2 billion liras) to the campaign. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, members of the cabinet, opposition leaders and several celebrities made large donations. 

The funds will be collected by Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency and the Turkish Red Crescent. 

The series of earthquakes and aftershocks, the worst of which was 7.8 in magnitude, rocked southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria on 6 February. Nearly 42,000 people have died, although the death toll is expected to rise. 

Thousands of structures across the affected regions have collapsed and entire neighbourhoods have been wiped out, sparking anger against the Erdogan government for allowing construction that lacked proper implementation of building standards.