Screenshots taken from Reuters video report, ‘Drone footage shows devastation from Turkey earthquake’ from Hatay province following the February 6, 2023 earthquake.
February 6, 2023, will be remembered as one of the most tragic days in Turkey's history for decades to come. That morning, the country woke up to the devastating news of an earthquake, later described as the “disaster of the century,” striking 11 of the country's southeastern provinces. According to official data, over 50,000 residents died, while over 100,000 were wounded. The lives of hundreds of thousands more were upended. Two years on, and the situation on the ground is grim. Promises to rebuild and deliver homes within a year have not been fulfilled, and thousands of displaced residents continue to exist in limbo, still living in tents and containers under difficult conditions.
Undelivered promises
Shortly after the earthquake, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged 319,000 new homes by February 2024, with a total of 680,000 by 2025.
This was just months ahead of general elections, and these promises garnered support from those hit the hardest to vote for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the incumbent president.
Numerous reports of government failure to prevent the extent of the damage were forgotten even though it was the same government that passed 19 zoning amnesty laws since 1948, which granted pardons (for a fee) to building contractors who failed to meet safety standards. Many registered post-earthquake assembly zones for tents and humanitarian responses disappeared with the construction boom. Over the years, the AKP rejected 58 motions from opposition politicians requesting an independent oversight committee to monitor building safety. Warnings by the experts from the Chamber of Geological Engineers rang hollow.
A year after the earthquake, the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization stated that 46,000 homes were finalized. In January 2025, the same ministry said that since the earthquake, 169,171 homes were finalized. This is 30 percent of what was promised, noted the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) in its report on the causes and consequences of the earthquake. Meanwhile, according to Disaster and Emergency Management under the Ministry of the Interior, there are currently 395 container cities across 11 provinces, homes for 650,000 citizens whose properties have been destroyed or labeled unsafe following the earthquake. Complaints remain over a lack of access to basic necessities, such as electricity, heating, and water.
Unserved justice
Despite countless demands for justice, many families continue to search for their missing loved ones to no avail, while those accountable have taken no responsibility.
In its second evaluation report published in February 2025, TMMOB wrote, “Those who allowed the construction of risky structures, paved the way for lack of inspection, and turned a blind eye to all the negative developments after construction in order to increase the profitability of capital have been left unpunished and even not investigated.”
According to the Ministry of Justice, 2,031 case files were submitted for investigation. Of these, in 1,397 cases, indictments were prepared based on the submitted files. Only in 75 cases were verdicts issued, resulting in a sentence of 130 people to various jail terms. Most of them are “technical staff, such as contractors, architects and engineers with different responsibilities in construction,” reported Turkey Recap.
No public officials are among those charged. And in cases where officials’ names were brought to court, they have either been released, or no further measures have been taken against them.
Speaking at a commemoration ceremony in Malatya province, Veli Ağbaba, an MP representing the province from the main opposition Republican People Party (CHP), said, “One of the most important things that the earthquake actually taught us or rubbed in our faces is that unfortunately those responsible were not punished. In Malatya and in many other cities where the earthquake occurred, not a single local administrator, politician or bureaucrat was punished or tried.”
Remembering
On the anniversary day, Turkish social media platforms were abound with reminders not to forget and to continue holding those responsible to account, under hashtags #6Şubat [February 6], #SesimiDuyanVarmı [Can someone hear me], #Unutmayacağız [We will not foget].
“No one was held to account for selling tents that were meant for the survivors from the Red Crescent. But 87 of those who protested this faced court cases,” wrote popular graphic designer Mahir Akkoyun, who goes by the name of Mahigra, in a series of posts on Instagram. Akkoyun was referring to a journalist's investigation that revealed the state-backed aid organization, sold tents rather than distributing them for free in the aftermath of the earthquake. Journalists who were on site shared photographs of the destruction and pain.
Two years passed since the February 6 earthquake. Those accountable were not tried, justice has not been served, no action has been taken to build earthquake resistant cities. So as not to forget…
Looming Istanbul earthquake
After the earthquake, many residents of Istanbul, Turkey's largest city and economic hub, packed their bags and moved elsewhere across Turkey, knowing that the city rests on a fault line, predicted to trigger a magnitude 6 to 7 earthquake by 2030.
In 1999, a 7.5 magnitude quake killed 18,000 people and left 250,000 homeless in Istanbul. According to the research released by the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences, the Armutlu Peninsula, just south of Istanbul, “is an active tectonic plate boundary known to generate destructive earthquakes causing large numbers of casualties.”
Dr. Naci Görür, a geology professor, has been warning of a looming earthquake hitting the megapolis and a lack of readiness to meet the needs of the city's official 16 million residents (the numbers are likely higher unofficially with estimates putting the city's population at 20 million.)
“Years of unchecked urban development have turned many of İstanbul’s vacant lots into high-rise apartments and shopping malls, leaving residents few areas to gather during emergencies. Research conducted by Turkey Recap found the lack of designated safe zones, along with aging housing stock and weak building code enforcement, add an extra layer of vulnerability to İstanbul’s most at-risk neighborhoods,” wrote Turkey Recap in its February 2025 risk assessment report for Istanbul.
A recent statement by Murat Kurum, the minister of environment, urbanization and climate change, that Istanbul is not strong enough to “withstand a new earthquake” raised alarms as well as eyebrows. Kurum served as a minister between 2018–2023. He has been criticized for mismanagement during his tenure, including over the country's mining industry, lack of environmental policies to protect green spaces, and building amnesties granted. Following the devastating earthquake in 2023, Kurum was quick to defend the ruling government by claiming that the state did not leave its citizens in any earthquake-hit areas exposed or alone, even though responses from the ground told a different story.
On the first anniversary, the minister may have also slipped to give the true death toll of the February 6 earthquake. Speaking on television, Kurum said that, in total, 130,000 people died in that earthquake. The quote was picked up by local media and opposition parties criticizing the state for covering up the actual death toll. Kurum later said the number was the total number of deaths the country has experienced in all of the earthquakes thus far, not including the February 6 quake. But journalist Murat Agirel said the latter was not true. In a screenshot of all recorded deaths in the past earthquakes, Agirel tweeted, “According to this data, excluding the February 6 earthquake, the number of lives lost in the earthquakes is 77,852 people.”
In 2024, Kurum ran as the ruling Justice and Development Party candidate for Istanbul's mayoral seat but was defeated by Ekrem Imamoglu, who won a second term as the city's mayor.
With all this at hand, many Istanbul residents have been asking the same question. When the devastating earthquake on February 6, 2023, hit, residents from across the country, including from Istanbul, rushed to help — from organizing fundraising campaigns to sending aid, food and clothing to volunteering as rescuers. If a looming earthquake of the predicted magnitude hits Istanbul, who will rush to their help?
