Earthquake in Turkey: Biggest Disaster in 23 Years

İrem Uğur
Onedio Member
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Making a statement after the 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Kahramanmaraş, AFAD President Yunus Sezer said, 

'1014 citizens lost their lives. There are 2824 reports of collapsed buildings.' Speaking about the earthquake, Okan Tüysüz said, 'The 7.4 magnitude earthquake centered in Kahramanmaraş occurred in a very large area. The last time we experienced an earthquake of this magnitude was on August 17, 1999, so it is the biggest earthquake we have experienced in 23 years.''

Making a statement after the earthquake, AFAD President Yunus Sezer said, "1014 citizens lost their lives. There are 2824 reports of collapsed buildings."

After the 7.4 earthquake in Kahramanmaraş, which was felt strongly in 10 provinces, earthquake expert Okan Tüysüz made important statements on Ahaber. Tüysüz said, "The 7.4 magnitude earthquake centered in Kahramanmaraş occurred in a very large area. The last time we experienced an earthquake of this magnitude was on August 17, 1999, so it is the biggest earthquake we have experienced in 23 years."

Tüysüz said; "This earthquake is a shallow earthquake. This earthquake was felt in a wide area from Batumi to Egypt and Cyprus."

''The last time we experienced an earthquake of this magnitude was on August 17, 1999,'' Tüysüz said, ''So this is the biggest earthquake we have experienced in 23 years. This was an expected earthquake. Because it was known that the Eastern Anatolian fault line had been silent for many years, accumulating earthquakes and not discharging this energy through earthquakes. As a matter of fact, there was an earthquake in Elazığ on January 4th, 2020, and its aftershocks are still continuing. After this earthquake, especially in the media, more attention was drawn to the Pazarcık fault of Eastern Anatolia.

Making a statement about the conspiracy theories circulating on social media, Tüysüz said; "No earthquake can be triggered, stopped or prevented by humans. The power of human beings is neither enough to make earthquakes nor to stop them."

Tüysüz continued as follows: "Turkey is an earthquake country and there are two important faults within the borders of our country, the North and East Anatolian lines. There are 480 known faults in Turkey and maybe some unknown faults that have the potential to produce earthquakes, so it is not a surprise for us to have a destructive earthquake in any region of Turkey. But there are 4 important places where we expect a big earthquake.''

Responding to the question of whether there could be a big earthquake in the near future, Okan Tüysüz said; "Unfortunately, it is not possible to say this today, but it is natural for the earthquake to have big aftershocks."

Prof. Dr. Ahmet Övün Ercan said that the earthquake created an impact with the power of approximately 130 atomic bombs.