by Burak Akinci
ANKARA, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nearly one year ago, two powerful earthquakes struck southern Türkiye, claiming the lives of over 53,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
The initial quake, registering at 7.7 on the Richter scale, rattled 11 provinces in Türkiye and northern Syria during the early hours of Feb. 6, 2023. Subsequently, a second tremor, measuring 7.6 magnitude, struck the same area, exacerbating the damage to tens of thousands of structures and infrastructure.
Revising a previous count of 50,783 deaths, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on Friday that the death toll from the earthquakes had risen to 53,537, making it the deadliest disaster in modern Turkish history.
The seismic activity originated along the East Anatolian Fault, a nearly 1,000-kilometer-long fracture running diagonally across the southeastern part of the country.
Istanbul, situated on the North Anatolian Fault between two tectonic plates, faces a heightened risk, as seismologists warn that a major quake in the city is "overdue" following the one that claimed nearly 20,000 lives in northwestern Türkiye in 1999.
The nation reflects on the tragedy as some experts say "more destructive seismic events are unavoidable" in a region marked by active fault lines.
Humberto Lopez, the World Bank's Country Director for Türkiye, said last November that the cost of making Turkish housing stock safe from future earthquakes was estimated at 500 billion U.S. dollars.
"The expected earthquake in Istanbul will have a magnitude between 7.2 and 7.6. If this earthquake happens, it will do more damage than the quakes last February," Naci Gorur, an Istanbul-based geologist, said on his social media platform X.
He added that it was not possible to stop the earthquakes, but it was possible to construct buildings that did not collapse and kill their residents on a massive scale.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned last month that 66 percent of the country's territory and 71 percent of its population were exposed to earthquake risk.
"Preparing for earthquakes is more of a necessity than a choice for us. Because geographically, we are a country that lives face to face with earthquakes," Erdogan said in Istanbul.
Every day, mild seismic tremors are recorded in various regions of Türkiye, where the population is very sensitive to news relayed by the media regarding earthquakes.
Disaster management professor Mihat Kadioglu said during an interview with local media NTV that "we need a comprehensive approach to earthquakes, not a reactive and relief-oriented method when a quake occurs." ■
