Turkiye Earthquake Destroyed More than 40,000 Buildings

Turkiye’s government announced that at least 41,000 buildings in 10 states were completely or partially destroyed as a result of the earthquake, and stressed the need to remove cracked and collapsing buildings.

The Turkish Minister of Environment and Urban Planning, Murat Kurum, said, during a press conference in the city of Gaziantep, in southern Turkey, on Monday, that "in 10 states affected by the natural disaster, we discovered 41,791 buildings that had collapsed, had to be demolished immediately, or were in an uninhabitable condition."

He added that the assessment of the damage in the ten states is planned to be completed within a week.

The minister expected the construction work to begin in all ten states before the end of February.

It is noteworthy that a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck southern and southeastern Turkiye and northern Syria on February 6.

It became the most destructive earthquake since 1939 in Turkiye, killing more than 30,000 people.