Barcelona winger Arda Turan has extended his condolences to the victims of the 1999 Izmit earthquake on the 16th anniversary of the natural disaster via his official Twitter account.
Yıllar geçti ama acısı hala taze. Rahmetle anıyoruz. Ülkemizin tekrar başı sağolsun. Bir daha yaşanmaması için tedbir, tedbir.. #17Agustos
— Arda Turan (@ArdaTuran) August 17, 2015
The 1999 İzmit earthquake had a magnitude of 7.6 and occurred on 17 August. The earthquake lasted for almost a minute and resulted in the death of 17,000 people.
Izmit and the nearby city of Istanbul were effected by the earthquake in which many buildings were damaged and hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless.
Turan was playing at youth level for Istanbul based Altıntepsi Makelspor based in the Bayrampaşa district of the city at the time just a year before he signed for Galatasaray.
The Turkish international later joined Atletico Madrid where he won almost every piece of silverware at club level including the La Liga, Europa League, European Super Cup, Spanish Cup and reached the Champions League final.
Turan completed a £24 million move to Barcelona from Atleti last month on a five-year deal.
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