Delivering remarks in the earthquake-hit Osmaniye, Erdoğan said: “We are planning to revive our villages within a year, just like our cities. We will build a total of 70 thousand houses in our villages together with their stables, gardens and parks, in accordance with their original architecture, and will deliver them to their owners.”
Making a speech during the visit, Erdoğan noted that the 6.4 and 5.8-magnitude earthquakes yesterday caught him and Mr. Bahçeli in Kahramanmaraş, and said: “Words are insufficient to describe the agony in our hearts inflicted by the earthquakes striking one after another since February 6. As the debris removal efforts draw to a close, the number of our losses also increases along with our agony unfortunately. The most recent findings show that over 41 thousand people have lost their lives and 115 thousand others have been rescued injured in the earthquake zone.”
Pointing out that he already broke the good news yesterday for the planned construction of 200 thousand houses, whose groundbreaking is set to start in March, Erdoğan said: “We are getting to work in Osmaniye as well with 9,550 houses. Also, infrastructure services have resumed after the electricity, water and natural gas lines have been examined. All the roads are also open, thank Allah.”
Erdoğan continued his remarks as follows: “We are planning to revive our villages within a year, just like our cities. Accordingly, we will build a total of 70 thousand houses in our villages—1,361 in Osmaniye, 701 in Adana, 8,021 in Adıyaman, 2,927 in Diyarbakır, 386 in Elazığ, 14,141 in Hatay, 12,135 in Kahramanmaraş, 1,002 in Kilis, 17,990 in Malatya, 2,054 in Şanlıurfa, and 9,130 in Gaziantep—together with their stables, gardens and parks, in accordance with their original architecture, and will deliver them to their owners. We will thus be saying ‘Bismillah’ in March to start the works to provide our 270 thousand citizens and their families with their houses, 200 thousand of them in cities and 70 thousand in villages.” (ILKHA)