Lazar Markovic speaks for Telegraf after earthquake: "God himself spared us, we stand with Turkish people"
The former captain of the Partizan Belgrade football club conveys his first impressions after the disaster that hit the south of Turkey and the city where he currently plays
The catastrophic earthquake that hit the southern parts of Turkey early this morning thankfully "narrowly missed" two former Partizan footballers, captain Lazar Markovic and Marko Jetvovic, who are currently playing for Gaziantep from the city of the same name, which, unfortunately, has been greatly damaged, while there have been a large number of casualties.
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After the match with Antalyaspor, the Serbian players got three days off and together with ten of their teammates decided to spend that time on the coast, and only thanks to that fact they avoided the horrors that hit the city where they currently live.
Just as Telegraf got in touch with the visibly shaken Lazar Markovic, a little after 11:00 am, Gaziantep was hit by another strong, 6.7 magnitude earthquake, and the news kept coming in...
"We are fine, alive, healthy, but the south of Turkey and the city where we live and play - Gaziantep - has suffered a great calamity," Lazar Markovic told our portal.
"Right now we are in Antalya, it's just a coincidence, because after the game we got three days off and decided to stay here with our families and that's how we avoided the horror. There are ten other teammates here, also with families. The rest of the team, the guys who came back after the game are either in our training center or in their cars, outdoors, and we are in touch all the time.
Everyone is very scared, in fact the whole of Turkey is afraid. Well, a few minutes before you called me there was a strong earthquake again in Gaziantep, it was also felt here in Antalya and all I can say is that I am extremely sorry for the victims, the tragedy that happened and we stand in solidarity with the families of the victims, the Turkish people living through this disaster. I hope that everything will calm down as soon as possible and life will return to normal as much as possible."
Markovic says that he still does not know what the next steps will be, because literally the entire country is currently in collapse.
"You can see for yourself what is happening, the media, the internet is full of terrible pictures from Turkey, the news keeps coming. God himself spared us, I don't know what else to say, because I am extremely sorry when I read and watch all that coming from Gaziantep and other cities. We still don't know anything about any further steps, because the whole of Turkey has literally 'stopped' because of the disaster, we are waiting to be informed how to proceed," concludes Lazar Markovic.
(Telegraf.rs)