Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has handed over ten newly-built village houses as the government started the massive process of rehabilitating millions of people left homeless in the February 6 twin earthquakes that devastated 11 provinces in the country.
More than 50,000 people were killed in the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes in southern Türkiye, while more than 5,000 were killed in neighbouring Syria.
Speaking at a function to hand over the housing units in the worst-affected Kahramanmaras province, Erdogan said the government was 650,000 new housing units in the 11 affected regions.
“We’ve started the construction of more than 105,000 houses and completed the groundbreaking of almost half of them,” said Erdogan, speaking at the turnkey ceremony of the village houses built in Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras. He was accompanied by political ally Devlet Bahceli, the MHP leader.
“We are building 650,000 new homes in the earthquake zone, including 507,000 houses and 143,000 village houses. We plan to deliver 319,000 of these within a year and raise our cities to their feet,” added the President.
Moreover, efforts aren’t solely focused on building houses, according to the Turkish President, who added that the government was also constructing new living spaces containing schools, health centres, bazaars, markets, green areas, and parks.
Infrastructure improvements were also not confined to areas destroyed by the quakes but to the entirety of the 11 affected provinces.
In the ceremonies, Erdogan also announced that Türkiye would provide zero-interest livestock loans through the country’s Ziraat Bank to farmers who will continue to live in villages in quake-affected areas, as well as supporting the purchase of livestock and fodder.
Noting that this year's Ramadan and Eid al Fitr holidays were overshadowed by the devastation brought about by the earthquakes, Erdogan also commemorated the people who died in the quakes.
The president added that the government was working on upgrading 300,000 houses each year in the country's cultural capital Istanbul, which is also located in a highly active seismic zone.
"We aim to eliminate risky buildings in Istanbul in five years," Erdogan said.
