President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be in the field, visiting the southeastern provinces affected by last year’s twin earthquakes next week to examine the recovery efforts on the first anniversary of the disaster.
Within this scope, he will be visiting Hatay and Gaziantep provinces during the weekend and continue to Kahramanmaraş, Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman and Elazığ during the week. The president is also expected to visit other provinces hit by the quakes in the upcoming days.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya on Friday announced that Erdoğan will attend a handover and drawing of lots ceremony for 41,000 earthquake houses and 5,000 country houses in Hatay.
He reiterated that 53,537 lives were lost while 107,213 people were injured during the quakes.
Yerlikaya said the quake affected 14 million people in Türkiye. Around 38,901 buildings were destroyed by the first 7.8 magnitude tremor and initial aftershocks, which included one with a 7.5 magnitude later that day.
Türkiye has set up 215,224 metal containers to house 691,000 survivors who have lost their homes and been unable to find new accommodation on their own, Yerlikaya said.
As Türkiye marks the first anniversary of Feb. 6, people living in the hardest-hit regions are grieving deceased family and friends, struggling to rebuild livelihoods and grasping for closure in cases where loved ones are still missing.
A massive rebuilding effort is underway in areas devastated by the quake. The Turkish government is rushing to build more than 300,000 homes for displaced families.
Government officials say the new homes being built are designed to withstand strong earthquakes.
