Eight Turkish TV channels raise billions for quake victims in marathon telecast
Ankara, The Gulf Observer: Eight Turkish television channels have raised more than $6 billion during an aid drive for survivors of last week’s devastating earthquakes that hit 11 provinces affecting millions of people.
The channels ATV, FOX, Kanal D, Kanal 7, Show TV, Star TV, TRT 1 and TV8 ran a live joint broadcast on Wednesday for the campaign called “Türkiye One Heart.”
The campaign managed to generate more than $6.1 billion (115.1 billion Turkish liras). More than nine million SMS text messages of donation were sent.
Speaking at the transmission by phone, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that every penny collected would be used for the welfare of the victims.
He hoped the drive would collect an unprecedented amount of donations, adding similar campaign would also be launched in Azerbaijan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
The joint broadcast brought together leading culture, art, business, and sports figures to support the earthquake victims.
Popular TV stars from these channels urged the public to make donations to the Turkish disaster management agency AFAD and Turkish Red Crescent for the aid drive, which started at 1700GMT.
