President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed on Monday to rebuild Türkiye's southeastern region, hit last month by powerful earthquakes that claimed the lives of more than 46,104 people.

Türkiye aims to set up 100,000 containers over two months in the quake-hit southeastern region for disaster victims, Erdoğan said.

"Today, as we leave behind the fourth week since the earthquakes, we more clearly see the magnitude of the disaster we experienced and feel the pain of our losses more deeply," Erdoğan said after a Cabinet meeting in the capital Ankara.

On Feb. 6, the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes struck 11 provinces – Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Hatay, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa. More than 13.5 million people in Türkiye have been affected by the devastating quakes, as well as many others in northwestern Syria.

"Our aim is to start the construction of 244,000 houses and 75,000 village homes in the next two months," Erdoğan said, adding that the construction of 22,000 of these had already begun.

A total of 488,000 new homes will be built for disaster victims in the quake-hit areas within a year, he said.

As part of our efforts to support the earthquake victims, Erdoğan said, they are offering loans of up to TL 250,000 to traders in the severely affected areas.

The loan has a 60-month maturity, a grace period of 12 months, and an interest rate of 7.5%, half of which will be covered by the Treasury.

"Our aim is to provide financial assistance to the traders to help them rebuild their businesses and restore economic activity in the region," Erdoğan said.

The president also said they have already distributed emergency aid payments of TL 10,000 per household to over 1.61 million earthquake victims.

To further support the businesses and operators who have been affected by the earthquake, Erdoğan said, they have decided to waive the 2023 debts of the businesses in the earthquake area to Türkiye’s Small and Medium Industry Development Organization (KOSGEB).

"Additionally, we will clear all the debts of our operators who lost their lives in the disaster," he said.

Some 6,000 temporary business houses, which are now operational and serving traders were also established in the quake-hit region, he said.

"Additionally, we are constructing bazaars consisting of 3,000 containers to further support the businesses and provide them with a conducive environment to operate."