Three years after the devastating Feb. 6, 2023, twin earthquakes, Turkish sport is still reckoning with a tragedy that silenced arenas, reshaped seasons and claimed lives across nearly every discipline.
Centered in Kahramanmaraş and rippling through Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Adana, Adıyaman, Osmaniye, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya and Elazığ, the disaster halted daily life and with it, the rhythm of sport.
All competitions nationwide were immediately suspended.
Federations later approved special measures allowing clubs from the affected cities to withdraw from leagues without relegation, acknowledging that survival had replaced competition.
Football resumed on Feb. 25, but the scars were visible.
In the Süper Lig, Gaziantep FK and Hatayspor withdrew, while Yeni Malatyaspor and Adanaspor stepped away from the second tier.
Basketball, volleyball and handball leagues restarted in March, though several clubs were unable to complete the 2022-23 season.
International events were also disrupted. The European Indoor Archery Championships scheduled for Feb. 13-18 in Samsun were first postponed, then canceled. The 58th Presidential Cycling Tour of Türkiye was pushed from April to October.
Former Turkish internationals Volkan Demirel and Gökhan Zan became two of the most powerful public voices from the disaster zone.
Demirel, then head coach of Hatayspor, was in Hatay when the quake struck.
His tearful plea for help on social media became one of the defining images of the catastrophe.
Zan, a former Beşiktaş and Galatasaray defender who had also worked at Hatayspor, used live broadcasts to direct aid into the region. Both were later honored with the Turkish Football Federation’s 2022-23 Fair Play Special Award.
The losses cut deeply across sports.
National handball captain Cemal Kütahya, a key player for Hatay Büyükşehir Belediyespor, was killed alongside his four-months-pregnant wife Pelin Kütahya, their 5-year-old son Çınar Kütahya and his mother-in-law when their home collapsed.
He was 32. Metin Muhacir, one of the pioneers of Turkish men’s handball and his wife Nuran Muhacir also lost their lives in Adana.
In tribute, the Turkish Handball Federation named the 2022-23 Men’s Süper Lig after Kütahya and the Men’s First League after Muhacir.
In women’s basketball, national team player Nilay Aydoğan died at age 30 after being trapped in a collapsed building in Malatya while visiting her grandmother, who also perished.
The remainder of the ING Women’s Basketball Süper Lig season was played in her name and her club, Çankaya University, retired her No. 46 jersey.
Hatayspor’s Christian Atsu, the Ghanaian international who had played for Porto, Chelsea and Newcastle United, was found dead 12 days after the quake beneath the rubble of a collapsed residence in Antakya.
Ghana’s football federation later retired the national team’s No. 7 jersey in his honor. Atsu’s final goal, a stoppage-time free kick, came just one day before the disaster.
Hatayspor also lost sporting director Taner Savut. Yeni Malatyaspor goalkeeper Ahmet Eyüp Türkaslan was killed after remaining in the city while most teammates had left following a league match.
Among other victims were women’s footballer Verda Demetgül of Onvo Hatayspor, three Iranian players from Malatya’s amputee football team and Cameroonian player Elvis Nkam Teneng.
One of the most heartbreaking losses came in Adıyaman, where a 35-member delegation from Northern Cyprus, including students, teachers and parents from Gazimağusa Turkish Maarif College, died when their hotel collapsed during a school volleyball tournament.
The children are remembered as the “Champion Angels,” their memory honored through poetry and music across the Turkish Cypriot community.
In Kahramanmaraş, nine wrestlers from Büyükşehir Belediyespor lost their lives when their residence collapsed.
Rescue teams saved several athletes, but Ahmet Taş, Mehmet Eskisarılı, Ali Gürsoy, Aslan Ekiz, Eray Şimşek, Halil İbrahim Edirne, Hasan Sarıtürk, Ozan Datlı and Ahmet Durman could not be reached in time.
