The Turkish Football Federation has revealed that Turkish professional football fixtures in all leagues have been postpone until at least 17 February following the devastating earthquake which struck Turkey.
The fixtures set to be played this weekend have been postponed by a week and the Monday games Ümraniyespor vs Adana Demirspor, Giresunspor vs Kayserispor and Fenerbahçe vs Konyaspor which were cancelled due to the quake will be played at a later date yet to be determined.
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An international aid effort is being stepped up in southern Turkey and northern Syria following a huge earthquake that has killed more than 5,000 people.
The 7.8 magnitude quake struck near Gaziantep in the early hours of Monday while people were asleep.
A 7.5-magnitude tremor then hit at around 13:30 local time (10:30 GMT), which officials said was “not an aftershock”.
The country’s disaster agency says more than 3,419 people were killed in Turkey alone after the first quake, and more than 15,000 were injured.
Turkish vice-president Fuat Oktay revealed that more than 8,000 people so far have been pulled from the debris. About 380,000 people have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels, shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centres – but many are without shelter.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said 13 million of the country’s 85 million were affected and has declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces in order to manage the response.
Turkey said it would only allow vehicles carrying aid to enter the worst-hit provinces of Kahramanmaraş, Adiyaman and Hatay in order to speed the relief effort.
