Hatay

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 24 promised to heal the wounds of the victims of powerful earthquakes that hit Türkiye's southern region and claimed more than 50,000 lives.

"Together we will remove the traces of this disaster," Erdoğan said at a ceremony in quake-hit Hatay province.

A ship called "Karadeniz Lifeship Rauf Bey" will serve as a "floating school" for students preparing for university and high school entrance exams in the quake-hit region.

The Education Ministry will meet the needs of all quake-stricken students preparing for the exams on the ship that will anchor at Iskenderun Port.

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

Within the scope of efforts to remove tons of rubble following the deadly Feb. 6 quakes, the Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Ministry has assessed that some 101 million tons of debris lie in the quake-hit region, 2 million tons of which can be recycled to contribute to the economy, says a senior official.

Some of the citizens in the quake-stricken southern province of Hatay who had to leave the city have started to return one by one.

Mehmet Dönmez, a barber whose workplace was destroyed in the devastating quakes, is one of the people who have returned to their hometown.

Earthquake victims mourn relatives who lost their lives in the powerful earthquakes, in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, 5 March 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/SEDAT SUNA

The reporters were in Turkey covering the deadly earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people and left millions without homes. All three are freelancers and received official journalistic accreditation from the Turkish state.

Within the scope of the investigations carried out by the "earthquake crimes investigation offices" established by the Justice Ministry, the number of arrests of those involved in shoddy and illegal construction methods has increased to 298, of which 104 are contractors.

Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy met on March 14 with industry representatives in the tent set up at the Hatay Archaeology Museum in the quake-hit province of Hatay.

Ersoy said that they had started to carry out the decisions made within the scope of the Hatay Cultural Heritage Survival Project.

A Turkish doctor living in the States who was on vacation in Türkiye during the devastating quakes canceled his return tickets to volunteer at a field hospital in the southern quake-hit province of Hatay's Iskenderun district.

A 1,500-bed capacity ship brought to the southern province of Hatay's Iskenderun district to provide shelter to quake survivors has started to receive its first guests.