Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced the construction of about 200,000 homes from March in 11 provinces of Turkey, in an attempt to deal with the consequences of the earthquakes registered on February 6, which have resulted in more than 41,000 deaths on Turkish and Syrian soil, and millions of homeless people.
Erdogan, who has lamented the severity of the impact the quakes have had, has drawn parallels with historical events that wreaked havoc in Turkey’s eastern Anatolia province.
“With courage, faith and patience, we have withstood numerous political and social ups and downs over the centuries, such as the crusades and the Mongol invasions,” he said, according to reports from the Anatolia news agency.
In this sense, it has specified that 199,739 new houses are expected to be built in 11 provinces, among which are Hatay and Karamanmaras, the most affected by the earthquakes and where about 130,000 homes are planned. The objective is that the new buildings have three or four heights, maximum.
According to government estimates, around 118,000 buildings have collapsed in the country, required urgent demolition or suffered serious damage from the earthquake. And up to 1.6 million people in the region have needed shelter.
Erdogan has also indicated that he considers that “the mentality that is contrary to the urban transformation and the projects of TOKI (the Public Housing Administration, an agency of the Ministry of Urban Planning and the Environment) will be left aside.”
“We will never compromise scientific principles or the strength of the structures in the buildings that will be built in the earthquake zone,” he pointed out before explaining that houses will be built in the the cities of Malatya, Osmaniye, Diyarbakir, Sanliurfa and Elazig, as well as Adana, Kilis, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Adiyaman and Gaziantep.
According to the AFP news agency, Erdogan has promised that the buildings will be built “on firm ground and using the correct methods” and that they will be located far from fault lines and “closer to the mountains”, which would “protect against problems caused by soft ground”. . And he has stated that citizens will be able to move into “solid, safe and comfortable homes within a year”.
Experts, for their part, say that while Turkey has the right regulations, construction companies often build shoddy houses that cannot withstand strong tremors.
