A year after major quake, Turkey starts delivering homes for affected

One year after the devastating earthquakes that killed tens of thousands, Turkey has started delivering newly built apartments for locals whose buildings either collapsed or were heavily damaged.

“We continue to feel the pain of the lives we lost in the earthquake,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told a delivery ceremony on Saturday in the south-eastern province of Hatay.

Hatay, along the Syrian border, was one of the provinces worst hit by the twin quakes on February 6 last year.

More than 690,000 people still reside in temporary container units across the region. In certain areas debris removal works are still under way, according to the government.

Erdoğan said his government plans to deliver 200,000 household units, out of the total 390,000 planned, by the end of this year.

A total of 75,000 of these units will be ready within the next two months, Erdoğan announced on Saturday.

On February 6, 2023, two earthquakes measuring 7.7 and 7.6 rocked south-eastern Turkey and neighbouring Syria, killing more than 53,000 people in Turkey, according to official data.

Around 6,800 people died in the quakes across Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Amid relief efforts last year, Erdoğan faced anger from locals over what they dubbed a slow government response.

Others criticized the government for overlooking building-code violations.

Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch urged Ankara to hold public officials accountable for allowing defective construction.