8 Turkish TV channels to organize aid drive for earthquake victims

Eight Turkish television channels are joining forces to do an aid drive to help the survivors of last week's devastating earthquakes that hit 10 Turkish provinces.

The channels ATV, FOX, Kanal D, Kanal 7, Show TV, Star TV, TRT 1 and TV8 will do a live joint broadcast on Wednesday for the aid campaign, "Türkiye beats with one heart."

The joint broadcast will bring together leading culture, art, business, and sports figures to support the earthquake victims.

Popular TV stars from these channels will urge the public to make donations to the Turkish disaster management agency AFAD and Turkish Red Crescent for the aid drive, which will start at 8.00 p.m. local time (1700GMT) on Wednesday evening.

On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that the aid campaign will be done in Türkiye as well as neighboring Azerbaijan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Over 35,400 people were killed and 105,500 injured by two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye on Feb. 6, according to the latest official figures.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 tremors last week were centered in Kahramanmaraş and struck nine other provinces-Hatay, Gaziantep, Adıyaman, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakır, Kilis, Osmaniye, and Şanlıurfa. More than 13 million people have been affected by the devastating quakes.

In neighboring Syria, at least 3,688 people were killed and over 14,749 injured.