Minium: ODU Women's Soccer Rallies Around Teammate and Gathers Aid for Turkish Earthquake Victims

By Harry Minium
 
NORFOLK, Va. – Ece Turkoglu is trying her best to focus on her classes and offseason practice for the Old Dominion women's soccer team. But a tragedy being played out in her homeland 5,278 miles away has left her heartbroken, distracted and grieving and at times, in tears.
 
The 23-year-old rising senior grew up just outside of Istanbul, Turkey, and has watched in horror news reports about the more than 30,000 Turks known to be dead, and tens of thousands more likely buried under the rubble, after a powerful earthquake shook eastern Turkey and western Syria.
 
Her family – mother, Seldea, brother Atakan and sister Selin – are all safe, as are most of her friends. Istanbul is on the far west side of Turkey, far from the earthquake.
 
But Turkoglu said two soccer teams with many of her friends were in eastern Turkey when the 7.8 Richter scale earthquake, one of the strongest to hit Turkey in years, occurred at 4:17 a.m. on February 6.
 
There have been more than 30 aftershocks, including one on Feb. 7 almost as powerful as the original earthquake.
 
A women's team from Istanbul was able to leave. "And right after they left the second earthquake happened," she said.
 
The men's team was there when the second quake hit and some members of that team "are still under the rubble," Turkoglu said while fighting back tears.
 
"It's cold. It's been snowing there. Thousands of people are living in tents. There is a city there that is just gone, it's been destroyed."


Ece Turkoglu was part of ODU's 2022 Sun Belt Conference championship team.  

Turkoglu, who played a key role in ODU's run to the 2022 Sun Belt championship, feels helpless being so far away. If she were in Turkey, she says she would have traveled to the earthquake zone and pitched in to help find survivors or pass out food and water.

"I know my family is safe, but that does not change how I feel," she said. "They (earthquake victims) are all from my country and I want to be there to help them. But I'm so far away, it's just not possible."
 
Distance hasn't stopped she and her ODU teammates from doing what they can to aid Turkey. When head coach Angie Hind heard about the earthquake, she immediately called Turkoglu to make sure her family was okay.
 
She and Turkoglu then brainstormed about what they could do to help. They reached out to the Turkish embassy and were told that flights are leaving the United States every day with relief supplies.
 
So, the soccer team began gathering coats, jackets, hats, gloves and blankets before the embassy communicated that it had enough relief supplies. Players and coaches have also been pushing links to websites for organizations rushing aid to victims.
 
Click here to help Turkey earthquake victims
 
Although it's been seven days since the earthquake, a handful of people were rescued from the rubble on Monday.
 
Turkoglu said her coaches and teammates "have been so good to me. They've all expressed how sorry they are and all have tried to help."
 
"The only place I feel like myself is during practice, with my teammates," she added. "When I'm at home or in class, I feel like I'm dead.
 
"I feel what they feel right now in Turkey, and like how my family feels. The hard part is I'm not able to go there."
 
She says she's been touched by the international response. Rescue teams from France, Germany, Italy, Austria and the United States were expected, but Israel, Greece and Armenia also sent rescue teams as well as aid.
 
Historically, relations between Turkey and Greece and Armenia have been hostile – the border between Turkey and Armenia opened for the first time in nearly four decades in order for aid to reach those in need.


 
"There are so many hard things to handle right now, but the good thing is that 75 countries came to Turkey to help," she said.
 
"We don't have good relationships with some countries, but they are all helping. They are all in Turkey and helping to save peoples' lives. That's a great thing."
 
Turkoglu said she hasn't gotten much sleep since the earthquake hit. She reads every online report about the earthquake. She tries to go to bed early but when she can't sleep, inevitably she goes back online to see stories from home.
 
She revels whenever someone is rescued, but some stories have broken her heart, she said.
 
"I saw a picture of this man and he knows his daughter died," she said. "She's still under the rubble and her hands are visible. He stays there holding her hands even though he knows she's dead. He can't leave her."
 
Her grief has been made all that much more difficult by the death of her father, Ayhan, less than a year ago from a heart attack. The reality of his death has yet to sink in.
 
"Fortunately, I was in Turkey when he died," she said. "But since returned here, when I think of home, I still think he is there."
 
Her sister plays soccer in Ankara, Turkey's capital city, where she said she could feel the earthquake.
 
"She said it felt terrible," she said. "She is the one who found my father, so all of this has been very difficult for her."
 
Turkoglu recalled a phone call she made to her mother.
 
 "I called to ask if they're okay," she said. "And she responded that they are fine, but not okay."
 
She says she takes solace in her Muslim faith, and said she also appreciates the prayers from her Christian teammates.
 
"I pray for my father every day," she said. "I pray for my family, for my sister, for my friends, for myself.
 
"And I pray for everyone in Turkey."

Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram