Speaking during a visit to the earthquake-hit Kahramanmaraş, President Erdoğan said: “The silhouettes of the permanent houses have already begun to rise all across the earthquake zone.”

“We have mobilized all our means”

“We as the state and the nation have since the very first moment of the disaster have mobilized all the means,” President said, and added: “Although some setbacks occurred in the first days due to the bad weather conditions, the damages in the infrastructure and the vastness of the destruction zone, thanks be to Allah we have stood with our quake-victim brothers and sisters in a short span of time. We have carried out one of the biggest search and rescue, relief and reconstruction operations of the world’s history.”

“We have formed mechanisms that will meet all the needs of our earthquake victims”

Noting that the number of the personnel in the earthquake zone has reached 650 thousand, President Erdoğan said: “35 thousand search and rescue staff coming from abroad and various places in our country worked hard for weeks to keep the hopes under the last pile of debris alive. In addition to this, we have formed mechanisms that will meet all the needs of our earthquake victims, from clothes and food to hygiene, and temporary accommodation to the construction of permanent houses.”

“We have removed the debris of the collapsed buildings”

Drawing attention to their goal of reviving all the cities in the earthquake zone by building 650 thousand new houses, Erdoğan stated: “We have removed the debris of the collapsed buildings. We have demolished the heavily-damaged buildings and cleared those areas. We have included the moderately-damaged buildings in the reconstruction plans. We have broken the ground in the areas where we have completed the ground studies. We had already delivered during the Eid the first village houses whose construction had been completed. The silhouettes of the permanent houses have already begun to rise all across the earthquake zone.” (ILKHA)