A Cumbrian restaurant owner has launched a fund to help people impacted by the devastating earthquake in Turkey.
Mehmet Durmuş, 51, who runs Aspava in Cockermouth with his wife Tracy, said his home town in Turkey, Islahiye and Kayabasi Koyu had been hit really hard by the earthquake on Monday and its aftershocks.
He said: “I’ve lived in Cumbria for 20 years but the town where I was born and the villages and cities around have been destroyed and people are suffering and we just want to help them as much as we can.”
Mehmet added that the majority of his family are living in Turkey and that he plans to go to them as soon as he can.
He said: “All my family is there in Turkey except for my dad and sister who came to visit us here so they’re safe, but all the rest of my family are there. They’ve just taken one of my cousins out from under the rubble but apart hearing some things I haven’t talked to them properly at all yet. There’s no electricity so we are struggling to contact them.”
“The money I’m raising I’m going to actually go out there with that money and make sure it’s going to the right people. I was planning to go straight away but my uncle said there was no way I’d be able to get there with all the closed and blocked roads.
“So for now I’m just raising as much money as I can to support everyone from here.”
Rescue workers are currently flooding into the country – and neighbouring Syria, which was also hit – as the death toll rises to over 8,300 people. It was the most powerful earthquake in the region for over a century and it is thought that over 23 million people could ultimately be affected by the natural disaster.
Mehmet added: “From the bottom of my heart I want to thank everyone for donating in this crisis, we’ve all got to pull together and try and help and that’s what I’m hoping to do.
“I want to raise as much as I can to take over to help family and friends that have lost everything, including loved ones to provide anything they need from water, blankets and building materials just to help in any way I can.”
He has launched a Gofundme page and has already raised £4,300.
