Türkiye’s president pledged on Wednesday to rebuild the country’s southern region, hit last month by powerful earthquakes that claimed the lives of at least 48,448 people.
The damage assessment is about to be finalized
“We have a promise to our nation to restore our cities, which were destroyed in the earthquake, within a year. We are about to finalize the damage assessment,” Erdogan said at the Justice and Development (AK) Party’s group meeting in parliament.
Türkiye is planning to build 319,000 houses in one year, Erdogan added.
“We must appease the hearts, share the pain, heal the wounds, and make up for the financial losses, especially the houses,” he said.
Powerful quakes struck 11 cities
On Feb. 6, the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes struck 11 provinces — Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Hatay, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.
More than 13.5 million people in Türkiye have been affected by the devastating quakes and many others in northern Syria.