Turkish boxer sells gloves for Kobane refugee children

ISTANBUL

Turkish light-heavyweight boxer Ismail Özen sold the boxing gloves he used in a fight against Serbia’s Culum Slobodan on Dec. 20. DHA Photo

Turkish light-heavyweight boxer Ismail Özen sold the boxing gloves he used in a fight against Serbia’s Culum Slobodan on Dec. 20, in a bid to support children that fled Kobane, the Syrian town that has been under siege by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, into Turkey.

The 34-year-old enjoyed a technical knock-out in the fourth round, the 12th in his career, in the match against Slobodan in Hamburg, Germany.

“I had confidence that I would win and I am lucky that it happened with the support and the spectators chanting,” he said after the event, announcing that he was putting his gloves on auction to support the children who left their houses due to attacks by ISIL and now live in Turkish camps under difficult conditions.

“I have personally visited those camps and talked to the children, and I am supporting this cause because I witnessed their struggle for life under hard conditions,” he said.

The gloves were sold for 3,000 euros, as Özen thanked everyone who helped.

Özen is also known for playing songs by Ferhat Tunç, a local singer, in the Zaza language before the games.

Some 200,000 people have escaped from Kobane, taking shelter in camps in Turkey.

This added to hundreds of thousands of refugees, who fled to Turkey from unrest in both Syria and Iraq.