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Team members at Royal Mail’s Woodmill Street office were inundated with support after postie Garry Haldane made an appeal for items to help those in the worst affected areas of Turkey and Syria.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit the border region between the two countries, a zone with a population of 13.5 million.
Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives.
On Friday two Turkish men living in Dunfermline, Servet Atos, who is from Ankara, and Emin Tatli, whose family still live in Antakya in the Hatay Province, a city which has been reduced to rubble, visited the collection point.
“Our heart is crying, it’s very bad, this is not like before,” said Servet.
“I am 50 years old, I have seen four or five big earthquakes in Turkey, but this is different.
“People have died, people need help, people need love, they need everything.”
He continued: “Thank you Dunfermline people for helping us, the Royal Mail workers, Garry Haldane and the manager (Colin Darling) as well.
“I have lots of friends still living there, some friends lost their daughters, some friends’ mothers died, some friends are injured in the hospital.
“I know there are lots of people all over Turkey helping, most of it is children, lots of children have died, lots of children need help.”
Servet recalled the earthquake of 2011 which occurred near the city of Van in Eastern Turkey.
Then, he and other members of the Bersiktas Carsi fan club, of which he is the west coast leader, provided aid to those in need.
He said: “When you haven’t seen it you can’t understand, it is very bad. I was there in 2011 helping people in one earthquake, I saw all of the people, the children, when I gave some boys books and jackets, they were so happy.
“I am very upset, the international news, the videos, my friends send me videos, but I am happy all of the world is trying to help.”
For Emin, the news coming out of Turkey has been even more difficult, with his family home reduced to rubble.
Photos of his relatives pictured them camped in their garden, while what remains of their house will need to be torn down and rebuilt.
Emin told the Press: “Hatay Antakya is almost 80 to 85 per cent destroyed, easily.
“We think there will be 50,000 or 60,000 dead, more than half of the people still under the buildings will be, I don’t think there is any chance now to get them out alive, unless a miracle happened.
“All my family, all my friends are there, one of my best friends lost 11 people from his family, it’s really hurting.
“The first couple of days was really hard, there was no electric in the city and it is winter. They are outside in the cold freezing.
“Now we can get in contact and speak and they show us the videos of everywhere collapsed, destroyed.
“Now I see my home town, it hurts much more.
“There is no more of your city, there is no more.”
Emin works at Antioch, a Turkish restaurant on Bridge Street in Dunfermline owned by Nihat Oymak, who is in Turkey now.
He added: “You cannot help, you cannot do anything, even if I did go, what would I do?
“There are no more safe buildings, everything is destroyed there.
“All these people lost their houses, families, workplace, what are we going to do?”
Across Scotland, the Disasters Emergency Committee’s (DEC) Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal raised £5.5 million in the first three days, with more still pouring in.
The funds will provide urgent relief for people affected by the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
After successful collections for both refugees from Iraq and Ukraine, Garry wanted to ensure that people in Dunfermline had a way of giving, even if they could not provide monetary aid.
He said: “I have friends in the Turkish community and when I first inquired there was only money being taken by humanitarian charities.
“I thought well, we’re in an economic crisis, people don’t have the money, so I set something up here, I did it for the Iraqi refugees and Ukrainian refugees and it was quite successful.
“I’ve been surprised at the success of this, it’s blown my mind, the generosity of the people of Dunfermline who have come out in the last couple days.
“I thought it was important to do because people are generous and people do want to help, if they can’t help monetary-wise then how will they help? It’s people from all walks of life, it’s been tremendous, people have been piling through the door.
“Dunfermline has always been a charitable town and the people have supported people all over the world, this is testament to that.”
The collection point is no longer accepting most items of clothing and those who want to help are being urged to check Garry’s Facebook page before visiting.
•To support the DEC appeal, go to dec.org.uk or call 0370 60 60 610. You can also text SUPPORT to 70787 to donate £10, donate over the counter at any high street bank or post office, or send a cheque by post to DEC Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal, PO Box 999, London EC3A 3AA.
