Turkish professional basketball player Nilay Aydogan has been found dead after last week’s devastating earthquake, the country’s sports federation announced.
“It is with deep sadness that we learned that Nilay Aydogan, the national player of Cankaya University, one of the teams in the ING Women’s Basketball Super Leaguelost his life in the earthquake,” the federation reports in a statement.
Aydogan, 30, had traveled to Malayta to visit her grandmother when the devastating earthquake struck, which collapsed the apartment block in which they were both staying, according to Turkish media. Both the athlete and her grandmother were found dead in the rubble of the building.
Malayta is over 150 kilometers east of Kahramanmaras, where the epicenter of the earthquake was located in the southeast of the country that has caused more than 35,000 deaths in Turkey and Syria.
The player’s funeral was also attended by the president of the Turkish Basketball Federation, Hidayet Türkoglu.
Aydogan had played for several second and first division teams throughout his career in Turkey. He had also been international in the lower categories of the country and at the beginning of his professional career.
