Kocaeli Governor's Office

Turkey marked the 20th anniversary of the 1999 Marmara earthquake, the worst seismic disaster in the country's recent history that killed around 18,000 people and wounded 50,000, with various commemoration events organized across the Marmara region on Aug. 17.

A major oil spill that occurred off the coast of Dilovası in the Gulf of İzmit on Jan. 12 has been cleaned up "to a great extent," according to Turkey's Environment Ministry.