Balancing optimism and caution is crucial for the success of the Türkiye-Greece initiative, which should gain support with tangible outcomes

The current political climate in Türkiye and Greece, coupled with the shared commitment of political leaders to pursue a positive agenda, presents a crucial opportunity for a more constructive dialogue in Turkish-Greek relations. Having faced the detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, earthquakes, wildfires, economic crises and the adverse repercussions and risks of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine as well as the escalating tensions in Gaza, which could impact the entire region, the two neighboring countries should, at the very least, acknowledge the imperative need to address their issues through sincere political dialogue.

Reflecting on recent history, it becomes evident that when both nations lose focus on areas of mutual interest and exclusively consider emerging opportunities and risks through a self-centric lens, they overlook broader possibilities. The potential for a collaborative mindset is underestimated by leaders and politicians on both sides. Through a dialogue-oriented approach, these neighbors can reach an understanding that maximizes their respective interests.

Contentious issues such as the territorial waters of the Aegean Islands, maritime delimitation, airspace debates and concerns regarding the militarization of the Aegean Islands will persist. Quick resolutions to these matters should not be anticipated and diplomats and politicians will remain engaged in addressing these complex issues. More crucial, however, is the methodology employed to address these disputes and manage the overall political atmosphere to prevent tensions from spiraling out of control.

Following rounds of consultations and constructive diplomatic exchanges between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, acknowledging that a positive political atmosphere contributes to building mutual trust and confidence is significant. Meetings on the margins of NATO’s Vilnius summit in July 2023 and the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) in September 2023 paved the way for a positive agenda. Having witnessed the perilous consequences of unbridled political confrontations, the leaders opted for reconciliation over further escalation. It now falls upon political leaders, intellectuals and public figures in both countries to manage public sentiments and shape realistic and constructive expectations.

Stability and certainty

Amid a turbulent region, Greek-Turkish relations must stand as a pillar of stability rather than a zone of uncertainty. Equally crucial is preventing third parties from exploiting and instrumentalizing ongoing issues between Türkiye and Greece. While external interests may wane or shift, the citizens of both nations will continue to coexist. Tensions and negative political messages may surface periodically, and both parties should be prepared to address these moments with patience. Leaders must concentrate on the medium and long-term strategic gains of this constructive political dialogue process.

With an ongoing positive agenda, the leaders of both countries are embracing a new methodology to resolve their differences. This approach is grounded in mutual interests and a commitment to sustained political dialogue. Previous attempts, which focused solely on one side’s concerns, proved unsuccessful, causing both countries to miss out on numerous economic and political opportunities. Optimism, tempered by caution and patience, is the key to the success of this new process. As the positive agenda produces tangible outcomes, the support for this process among constituents in both countries will likely grow.

Source: Daily Sabah

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Victory party’s leader says he and Kılıçdaroğlu have signed agreement to deport refugees and not reinstate Kurdish mayors

The leader of Turkey’s ultranationalist Victory party has endorsed the opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, breaking ranks with the party’s former presidential hopeful Sinan Oğan, who endorsed Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The Victory party leader, Ümit Özdağ, declared at a joint press conference with Kılıçdaroğlu that the two had signed a memorandum of understanding, including guarantees to deport all refugees in Turkey within a year of coming to power.

They also agreed not to reinstate democratically elected Kurdish mayors in Turkey’s south-east previously replaced with appointees as part of a state crackdown on the leftwing and mostly Kurdish People’s Democratic party (HDP) – a swipe at the Kurdish support that buoyed Kılıçdaroğlu in the first round.

“We reached a consensus with him. As the Victory party, we decided to support Kılıçdaroğlu in the second round,” he said. The HDP, whose jailed leader Selahattin Demirtaş previously endorsed Kılıçdaroğlu, said it would meet to decide how to respond.

The split endorsement comes days before Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu face a runoff round in the presidential elections on 28 May. In the first round Erdoğan attained just over 49.5% of the vote, ahead of Kılıçdaroğlu’s 44.5%.

Oğan, who ran on a far-right explicitly anti-refugee platform, won just over 5% of the vote in the first round, and declared his support for Erdoğan earlier this week.

“We believe that our decision will be the right decision for our country and nation,” he said. “I declare that we will support Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the candidate of the People’s Alliance, in the second round of the elections.”

The Victory party had backed Oğan but said at the time that Oğan’s statement did not represent the views of the party.

Kılıçdaroğlu has already doubled down on his own anti-refugee rhetoric after the first round of voting, where both he and Erdoğan attempted to attract Victory party supporters to their side for the runoff.

Days after his setback in the first round of voting, Kılıçdaroğlu pivoted away from his previous messages of inclusion and democracy and instead focused solely on his anti-refugee promises, reiterating a pledge to send refugees back to their countries of origin.

Throughout his campaign, including at his largest rally in Istanbul, Kılıçdaroğlu declared he would expel all refugees in Turkey “within two years” of coming to power. When the Guardian asked how he intended to square this promise with a desire to join the European Union, he replied: “We do not think of this as racism. When we come to power, we will sit and talk with the legitimate administration in Syria and find a solution to this problem.”

Following the signing of their agreement, Özdağ said Kılıçdaroğlu’s messages about sending refugees home had resonated with him. Both leaders cited vastly inflated figures for the numbers of refugees and asylum seekers currently in Turkey, estimated to be around 4 million, including at least 3.6 million Syrians under a temporary protection order imposed by Erdoğan.

Just 2.2% of Turkish voters say refugees are the country’s biggest problem when polled, compared with more than 56% concerned about a profound economic crisis that saw the lira lose half its value in one year alone.

Source: The Guardian

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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has little time to bask in his electoral triumph

After claiming victory in Sunday’s presidential election run-off, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said “Turkey was the only winner” as he addressed jubilant supporters. Yet while the veteran president’s loyalists celebrate, millions of other Turks will be hanging their heads in dismay, agonising over what another five years of the strongman’s rule means for their polarised country. They are right to be worried. Even Erdoğan, who has dominated Turkish politics for two decades, must realise that he has no time to bask in his triumph if his nation is to avoid plunging deeper into economic crisis. 

The elections took place against the backdrop of an acute cost of living crisis, with Turkey’s currency trading at record lows and inflation hovering around 44 per cent. The crisis is largely a result of Erdoğan’s pursuit of unorthodox economic policies: he has railed against high interest rate rises while inflation soared and neutered the central bank’s independence. 

Pressure on the state’s diminishing resources will be increased by a string of blatant election giveaways, including changing retirement age regulations and increasing civil servants’ salaries. Its foreign currency and gold reserves tumbled $17bn in the six weeks before the first round of voting on May 14 as Erdoğan sought to prop up the economy and currency ahead of the polls, according to Financial Times calculations of official data. The state is also grappling with a near-record current account deficit. 

Yet Erdoğan’s policies, coupled with his penchant for picking fights with western allies and his drift towards authoritarianism, long ago scared off foreign investors who could provide much needed hard currency. This is not sustainable. The state is running out of resources to defend the lira. 

Erdoğan has to put aside his personal quirks, return to a conventional monetary policy and take serious steps to restore credibility to state institutions. Only then would Ankara have any chance of convincing wary investors to return. But if Erdoğan is true to form, the west can expect another era of unpredictable and testy relations with the Nato member. 

There are also concerns about what Erdoğan’s victory will mean for the country’s democracy. Since first leading his Justice and Development party (AKP) to power 21 years ago, he has consolidated power and centralised decision-making to unprecedented levels, edging ever closer to one-man rule. He has replaced Turkey’s parliamentary democracy with an all-powerful executive presidency since pushing through a constitutional referendum in 2017. Elections take place on an unlevel playing field. The mainstream media has mostly come under the control of the government. Opposition politicians, journalists, academics and businessmen languish in prisons.

The list of those incarcerated includes Selahattin Demirtaş, the leader of the Kurdish-dominated Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP), who has been behind bars since 2016. The spectre of a ban from politics — and possible prison — hangs over Ekrem İmamoğlu, Istanbul’s mayor and a senior figure in the Republican People’s party (CHP), the main opposition party, after he was convicted in December of insulting electoral officials. 

Many others will be fearful about their civil liberties. During the campaign, Erdoğan, who has courted ultranationalists, repeatedly attacked his opponent, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, for being pro-LGBT rights and for supporting terrorists, a thinly veiled reference to his outreach to Kurdish voters.

The president’s supporters will point to another victory at the ballot box as further evidence of Erdoğan’s enduring popularity. But the fact that he was forced into the run-off after neither he nor Kılıçdaroğlu garnered more than 50 per cent of the vote in the first round underlines the political chasm between those who love or loathe the divisive leader. Constitutionally, this should be Erdoğan’s final term. If indeed it is, he would be wise to consider the legacy he intends to leave. But whatever course he charts, Turkey risks heading into worryingly stormy waters.

Source: FT

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Voters in both Turkiye and Greece went to the polls this month, and those in Turkiye will do so again on Sunday in a presidential election runoff between incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

In Greece, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s center-right New Democracy party demolished its main rivalsin elections for the Hellenic Parliament, unexpectedly increasing its share of the vote but falling just short of an outright majority. As a result, Mitsotakis called for another snap election in June.

Both elections are significant for two countries which in the past few months have engaged into a process of rapprochement. Depending on the outcomes, the neighboring NATO allies will draw a new path in their relationship. Although they have been going through critical elections, the rhetoric of the leaderships in the two capitals has not escalated, unlike in previous eras. Moreover, ahead of the elections, both Erdoğan and Mitsotakis conveyed mutually positive messages for bilateral ties. Erdoğan said that hostility and competition could be set aside, hoping that the elections in Greece and Turkiye would mark the beginning of a new era.

With the same tone, Greece also sent a positive message right after the May 14 polls. Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said he hoped whichever governments were in place in Greece and Turkey after elections would continue a rapprochement instead of seeking the return of tensions. “Honestly, I believe that it would be a dream to erase Greek-Turkish differences from the map and have the two countries collaborate,” Dendias said, and they could work together on energy projects in the Aegean and East Mediterranean.

Both elections are significant for two countries which in the past few months have engaged into a process of rapprochement.

Sinem Cengiz

In March, Dendias and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met in Brussels and agreed that Turkey would support Greece’s campaign for the UN Security Council in 2025-2026. In return, Greece said that it would back Turkey’s candidacy for secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization.

Aside from the elections marathon, two significant developments have led both Turkiye and Greece to put aside their differences in territorial and energy disputes. First was the devastating earthquakes that hit Turkiye in early February, which generated huge support from the Greek side. Greece was among the first countries to convey condolences, offer aid and send search and rescue teams to quake-hit cities. Second was the deadly train crash in northern Greece that killed at least 57 the same month. Turkiye was the first country to offer condolences and aid following the train accident. The solidarity and goodwill demonstrated by two neighbors toward each other have paved the way to opening a new page in relations in light of the “disaster diplomacy.” Upon these developments, Turkiye also allowed a Greek prisoner to visit Greece to attend his son’s funeral.

Following the meeting between the Turkish and Greek foreign ministers, the defense ministers came together in April. In a very rare visit, Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos visited Turkiye upon the invitation of his Turkish counterpart. Normally, the heated rhetoric about Turkish-Greek disputes comes from the defense ministers of two countries. Therefore, the visit was symbolically very significant. Traditionally, two neighbors, situated on seismic fault lines, help each other in times of natural disasters, while hitting each other in the wake of elections. It is not the case this time as different factors have been in play on both sides.

First, there has been ongoing German mediation behind the scenes between two neighbors. The current positive climate plays into the hands of the socialist-led government of Olaf Scholz, who aims to resolve the disputes between Ankara and Athens. In the aftermath of every election, opportunities and challenges arise in the sphere of foreign policy. On the Greek side, Mitsotakis’s winning control of the parliament is not likely to bring a change in Greek foreign policy. However, a change of presidency in Turkiye might lead to a significant change in the foreign policy of the country.

The current positive climate plays into the hands of the socialist-led government of Olaf Scholz, who aims to resolve the disputes between Ankara and Athens.

Sinem Cengiz

It is noteworthy to understand how Turkish presidential rivals are perceived in Greece. Greek media has mostly approached Kılıçdaroğlu with concern, although he is a secular and pro-Western official. Kılıçdaroğlu, on several occasions, has raised the issue of demilitarizing Greece’s eastern Aegean islands. Kılıçdaroğlu has even criticized both Mitsotakis and Erdoğan for being populist, while pledging that he would solve the issue of the armament of the Aegean islands when he assumes power. While Greeks have been concerned about Kılıçdaroğlu and depict him as a danger in Turkish-Greek relations, Turks residing in Greece have voted in favor of Kılıçdaroğlu in the May 14 elections, rather than Erdoğan. This was an interesting trend.

Thus, it remains to be seen what the outcome of the Sunday’s election in Turkiye would bring out. In any scenario, whether change or continuity, maintaining the rapprochement trend between Athens and Ankara is crucial, as the two neighbors face similar internal and regional problems, including Russia’s war on Ukraine, the Syrian refugee issue and economic difficulties. In the post-election era, instead of consuming their energies on endless disputes, both leaderships should focus on ways to build mutual trust in bilateral relations and ways of cooperation for mutual benefit. That path will certainly not be a bed of roses, but there is always light amid the darkness.

Source: Arab News

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“We’ve planned to rebuild hundreds of thousands of buildings,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Feb. 11, in the earthquake-hit province of Diyarbakır. 

”We will start taking concrete steps within a few weeks,” Erdoğan added, following two devastating earthquakes that affected 10 provinces in Türkiye. 

“We’ve declared a state of emergency. It means that, from now on, the people involved in looting should know that the state’s firm hand is on their backs,” he added. 

Source : Hürriyet Daily News

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Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spent two decades in power, serving as Turkey’s prime minister from 2003 to 2014, when he was elected president. 

He now faces the enormous challenge of rebuilding swathes of the country that have crumbled to rubble in the most devastating earthquake since 1999.

He is also seeking re-election in May.

Who is Erdogan, how has Turkey changed under his rule and what do his critics and supporters say about him?

The early years

Born in February 1954, Erdogan grew up on Turkey’s Black Sea coast until he was 13, when his family moved to Istanbul.

He went to an Islamic school, and biographers say he sold bread rolls and lemonade to help pay for his schooling.

He later played semi-professional football and earned a degree in management from Istanbul’s Marmara University.

Erdogan was mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998, losing his position when he was jailed for reading a controversial poem at a rally.

From prime minister to president

Erdogan became prime minister in 2003, two years after founding the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

He served three terms, presiding first over a period of economic growth fuelled by foreign trade and investment – before the tide started to turn against him.

In 2013, a wave of civil unrest broke out, centred on Istanbul’s Gezi Park. What started as demonstrations over plans to build a shopping mall over the park erupted into protests over a government seen to be becoming increasingly authoritarian.

In 2014, Erdogan became Turkey’s first directly elected president. Before this point, it had been a mostly ceremonial post; Erdogan sought to change that.

His vision of a new presidential system, which abolished the office of the prime minister and concentrated most powers in the hands of the president, was approved by a narrow victory in a 2017 referendum and installed following his successful 2018 presidential election.

An attempted coup

A group within Turkey’s military attempted to overthrow the government in 2016, conducting coordinated operations across several cities and targeting the president where he was holidaying in Marmaris.

Erdogan was flown to safety in a helicopter but about 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured after civilians stood up to the coup plotters.

In the crackdown following the coup about 150,000 civil servants were sacked and more than 50,000 people were detained, including journalists, academics, police officers, soldiers and lawyers.

Erdogan and the economy

Inflation in Turkey hit a 24-year high of 85% last October, with economists saying interest rate cuts sought by Erdogan were to blame.

Inflation dipped to just under 58% in January and is expected to sit around 40% when the country heads to the polls in May.

Turkey has been mired in economic crisis since 2018, with the lira plunging in value, slumping to one tenth of its value against the dollar over the last decade.

While high interest rates are normally seen as a way of bringing high inflation under control, Erdogan contends the opposite and vowed to keep cutting interest rates even as inflation hit its peak.

In January, Erdogan announced a raft of public spending, including doubling the minimum wage, lowering the retirement age and increasing pensions.

But his budget could be stretched now the government also faces the cost of a massive rebuild after the earthquakes.

Responding to the earthquakes

Erdogan has faced criticism from families left frustrated by a slow response from rescue teams.

Many Turks have complained of a lack of equipment, expertise and support to help those who are trapped.

During a visit to Hatay province, where more than 3,300 people have died and entire neighbourhoods have been destroyed, Erdogan said: “It is not possible to be prepared for such a disaster. We will not leave any of our citizens uncared for.”

Speaking to reporters, he criticised those spreading “lies and slander” about his government’s actions – and said it was a time for unity and solidarity.

“I cannot stomach people conducting negative campaigns for political interest,” he added.

However, he admitted there were some “shortcomings” in the initial response.

Erdogan and the world

Erdogan has long held close ties with Vladimir Putin and continues to call Russia’s president his “dear friend”.

Turkey’s president has offered to help mediate an end to the conflict in Ukraine and helped broker the deal for a safe export channel for grain in the Black Sea.

In recent months he has repeatedly threatened a ground invasion against Kurdish groups in northern Syria, sparking fears for control of prisons housing thousands of Islamic State fighters.

On the world stage, Erdogan has also been outspoken when it comes to Sweden and Finland joining NATO.

As a NATO member, Turkey has the right to veto any new inductees, and Erdogan has expressed concerns about the Kurdish population in Sweden.

What Erdogan’s critics say

Critics say Erdogan has turned Turkey into an autocracy – in other words, a one-man show – muzzled dissent and eroded people’s rights.

Reporters Without Borders lists Turkey at 149 out of 180 countries on its press freedom index, noting that 90% of its national media is now under government control.

Erdogan’s rolling back of the ban on women wearing headscarves was seen as one example of him reversing the secularity enshrined in the founding of the Turkish Republic a century ago. However, it was welcomed by Muslims who had felt excluded by the old rules.

Erdogan was also criticised for pulling out of an international accord designed to protect women from domestic violence in 2021. Hundreds gathered to protest the move, citing soaring rates of femicide in Turkey.

What Erdogan and his supporters say

Officials deny people’s rights have been curtailed, arguing Erdogan’s protected citizens in the face of unique security threats including the 2016 coup attempt.

Ozer Sencar, chairman of pollster MetroPoll, said that amplifying foreign policy and security issues ahead of elections allows Erdogan to consolidate his voter base – a reference to Erdogan’s remarks about Sweden and NATO.

He “creates a perception of a ‘strong leader’ inside Turkey,” he said. “If you can come up with a security problem, then people rally behind the strong leader.”

Meanwhile, the popularity of Erdogan and his party has hit a two-year high following a huge boost in spending, according to Middle East Eye.

A challenging election

The main challenge to Erdogan comes from an alliance of centre-left and right-wing parties, known as the Table of Six.

However, the parties are yet to nominate an opposition candidate.

Erdogan’s AK Party, now the biggest, is likely to remain a powerful force in parliament after the elections, but opinion polls show Erdogan trailing some potential presidential challengers including CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu and the popular mayors of Istanbul and Ankara.

Source: Sky News

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Last year, as Turkey marked the anniversary of an earthquake that ravaged parts of the country in 1999, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hailed government “urban transformation projects” that would shield people from future catastrophes. “As humans, it is not in our hands to prevent disasters; yet, it is in our hands to take measures against their destructive impacts,” he said.

Now, the Turkish president stands accused of failing to do just that — and faces the enormous challenge of a vast humanitarian crisis. The country’s worst natural disaster in almost a century has already claimed more than 19,000 lives on their side of the border with Syria. Erdoğan is now battling criticism that his government was too slow in getting help to stricken areas and that Turkey was ill prepared. It comes at a time when the president, who rose to national power just after the turn of the millennium, is waging his toughest re-election campaign yet.

“This is going to be the major issue in the election . . . [it] is terrible news for Erdoğan,” said Berk Esen, an assistant professor of political science at Istanbul’s Sabancı University. Born in Istanbul into a working-class family, Erdoğan, now 68, began championing conservative politics as a teenager.

The diehard football fan led an Islamic party’s youth branch in his early 20s. He later shot to prominence when elected Istanbul mayor in 1994. In 2001, he founded the Justice and Development party (AK party), choosing an acronym that meant “pure” to contrast with the corrupt, chaotic coalition governments.

The AKP, which had roots in Turkey’s Islamist movement but cast itself as pro-European and pro-business, won in a landslide in 2002 as voters panned the incumbent’s economic mismanagement and handling of the İzmit quake. “The 1999 earthquake was one of the reasons the governing parties not only lost but were wiped off the map,” said Atilla Yeşilada, an analyst at GlobalSource partners.

Erdoğan, known for his powerful rhetoric and knack for getting things done, became prime minister in 2003. While much of his political energy was consumed by battles with the army and other institutions, he also embarked on a huge transformation of national infrastructure. This gathered pace after the global financial crisis, as a wave of cheap money flooded in. Turkish prosperity increased while new hospitals, bridges, highways and airports sprang up.

Source: Financial Times

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A fire at Türkiye’s Iskenderun port in the southern Hatay province has been extinguished and maritime operations have resumed in the region, the country’s maritime authority said on Friday, four days after the blaze broke out following earthquakes that struck the region.

More than a thousand containers, which had caught fire, are being separated and the rebuilding of the port will begin swiftly, the source added.

Another source at the port said smoke was still rising from the scene as cooling operations continued.

“The fire is completely extinguished but the smoke is rising. Barring an extraordinary scenario, it looks like there is no chance for the fire to erupt again, but cooling operations will last three more days,” the person said.

Operations at the port were halted earlier and freighters were diverted to other ports.

The latest death toll from Monday’s earthquake was revealed as 18,991 on Friday while another 75,523 people were injured, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Erdoğan also said that over 76,000 quake victims so far have been evacuated from the earthquake zones to different provinces.

Source : Daily Sabah

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The death toll from Monday’s major earthquakes has surpassed 21,000, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Saturday.

Erdoğan said that 21,043 people are confirmed to have lost their lives in the recent disasters, while 80,097 others were injured.

Health Minister Fahrettin Koca had announced late Friday that the death toll had surpassed 20,000. In a later news conference, Vice President Fuat Oktay said 67 people were rescued from the rubble in the past 24 hours.

Oktay added more than 1 million citizens have been hosted in temporary accommodation centers.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaraş province, affected more than 13 million people across 10 provinces, also including Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa.

Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in the span of nine hours, with Syria’s death toll nearing 3,400.

Source : Daily Sabah

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Life for millions across Türkiye changed forever on Monday, as a pair of earthquakes nine hours apart with magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6 rocked its southern region, marking the ‘disaster of the century’

It was a Monday, 4.17 a.m. (1:17 a.m. GMT) when one of the deadliest disasters of the world hit the southeastern region of Türkiye and northern Syria, which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has termed the “disaster of the century.”

The first quake of 7.7 magnitude was centered in the Pazarcık district, followed by a 6.4 magnitude quake that struck southeastern Gaziantep province; while a third earthquake of 6.5 magnitude also hit Gaziantep. The disaster that shook the nation of 85 million was still fresh when another earthquake of 7.6 magnitude struck Kahramanmaraş province in central Türkiye.

The quakes flattened buildings of all kinds and killed thousands of people across southern Türkiye and northern Syria.

It is the fifth day of search and rescue where rescuers are still scrambling through rubble for survivors, but hopes are fading as it has been more than four days since the deadly quakes.

Tens of thousands of people have spent a freezing fourth night in makeshift shelters, after losing their homes. At least 18,342 people are dead and 74,242 others injured as of Friday.

Over 13 million people reside across 10 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Şanlıurfa. Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, felt the strong tremors that struck Türkiye in the space of fewer than 10 hours.

More than 120,344 search and rescue personnel are currently working on the ground, according to the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).

A total of 30,360 people were evacuated from quake-hit regions, the AFAD said in a statement.

Speaking in Kilis, Erdoğan said on Thursday that a total of 6,444 buildings had collapsed in the quake zone.

Vice President Fuat Oktay, while speaking in Parliament, said that, “The earthquake affected an area of approximately 110,000 square kilometers (about 42,471 square miles). This is equal to or greater than the area of many countries in Europe.

He added, “This earthquake is the third-largest to occur since the 1668 Great Anatolia earthquake and the 1939 Erzincan earthquake in the last 2,000 years in Anatolia.”

A total of 97,973 family tents have been set up to shelter survivors and rescue teams, blankets, tents, food and psychological support teams were also sent to the affected areas, the AFAD said.

In addition, 10,363 vehicles, including excavators, tractors and bulldozers, were dispatched to the disaster area. Teams in Şanlıurfa and Kilis completed their search operations and have been redirected to other provinces, the AFAD added.

President Erdoğan on Wednesday inspected the ongoing search and rescue efforts as well as relief efforts in the provinces of Adana, Hatay and Kahramanmaraş provinces and the epicenter, Pazarcık, where he met survivors in tent cities.

A three-month state of emergency to speed up rescue and aid efforts in Türkiye’s quake-hit provinces entered into force on Thursday. While Türkiye is observing seven days of national mourning after the devastating quakes.

State and public unite to help

“The state and the people, hand-in-hand, will overcome this disaster. Together we will continue to recover,” Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum said during his visit to the Şatırhöyük and Sakçagöz districts, Nurdağı and İslahiye districts in Gaziantep on Thursday.

Conveying Erdoğan’s condolences, Kurum said: “Humanitarian aid work is continuing; our rescue teams have reached the inaccessible villages with five helicopters. The needs of all villages are being met simultaneously, while search and rescue activities are in full swing with 16,900 personnel without interruption, and will continue.

“So far, the 15,350 tents have been erected and planning for additional 25,000 tents continues. The container installation process has also started in the designated areas in Islahiye and Nurdağı.

“So far, we have determined that 122,141 buildings and 66,058 independent sections throughout the affected were destroyed or heavily damaged. In Gaziantep, 4,475 buildings, 12,423 houses, residences and workplaces were found to be heavily damaged or destroyed.

“With state-backed housing agency TOKİ (the Housing Development Administration), we will build one-floor, 105-square-meter, three-plus-one houses for our brothers and sisters affected by the disaster, in Çadırhöyük Village, Nurdağı and Islahiye, as we did after previous disasters.

“We will start providing partial electricity today with generators and will follow up with water supplies. Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality toilets will be repaired, and we shall also cater to the needs of animals,” said Kurum.

He noted that damage assessment work has already been completed.

Source : Daily Sabah

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