Adana

Exactly 46 days after the devastating Feb. 6 earthquakes, the first foundations for new housing in the affected provinces were laid on March 23.

The municipalities of Greece have collected over 1.5 tons of humanitarian aid that has been sent to the victims of the deadly earthquakes that hit Syria and Turkey last month, a municipal official said on Thursday.

A drone shot of excavators at work among the rubble of collapsed buildings following the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, 14 February 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/TOLGA BOZOGLU

Following the Feb. 6 earthquakes that caused massive destruction in the country's south, the first Sunday mass has taken place in front of the ruins of collapsed Antakya Protestant Church in the southern province of Hatay.

At least 48,448 people lost their lives in the devastating earthquakes that rattled the country's south on Feb. 6, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has announced.

Some 6,660 of the dead were foreign nationals, Soylu said at a press conference in the eastern quake-hit province of Malatya.

The debris removal works are ongoing without interruption, Soylu added.

Schools reopened on March 13 in the southern quake-hit provinces of Adana, Gaziantep and Osmaniye, as education had to be suspended in the quake-hit region due to the massive destruction caused by the twin tremors last month.

A Doberman who was trapped in a collapsed building in Hatay's Antakya district and gave birth under the rubble has miraculously been rescued alive with her puppies 29 days later.

The building in which pharmacy technician Kadir Keyifli and his family lived in the Gazi neighborhood of the Antakya district collapsed during the deadly earthquakes on Feb. 6.

A lawyer has been on guard around the rubble of the service building of Hatay Provincial Directorate of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change for 21 days, delivering the official documents he finds to the prosecutor's office.

The historical Mar Circos (Aziz Georgios) Greek Orthodox Church in the southern quake-hit province of Hatay has become an aid collection center where numerous materials are packaged and delivered to quake survivors.

The U.S. personnel working at İncirlik Air Base in the southern province of Adana are now allowed to leave the base with permission given after the 12-year ban, which revived the economy in the region.