Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag has vowed to take action against negligence in housing construction after earthquakes in the south of the country since Monday brought down thousands of buildings.
«Our priority is to save the people trapped under the rubble. Then the judicial process will continue. Those who committed negligence will be held accountable,» the minister said in press statements reported by ‘Daily Sabah’.
The minister’s statements come on the same day that the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, announced that each family affected by the earthquakes will receive 10,000 Turkish liras (about 500 euros), while stating that Ankara will launch «massive housing operations» in the ten affected provinces.
«Our citizens should not worry. We will never allow them to be left on the street,» the leader said, before stressing that the victims can be accommodated for now in several hotels. «We have a significant capacity of rooms (in hotels). If our citizens do not want to stay here in tents, we will find accommodation for them in hotels,» he promised.
The president has also stressed that the authorities «have mobilized all resources» to deal with the consequences of the earthquakes, which have left more than 12,000 dead and 60,000 injured in Turkish territory. According to official data, more than thirteen million people have been affected by the earthquakes, which have also caused the collapse of almost 6,500 buildings.
For its part, the earthquake has left 1,262 dead and 2,285 wounded in the areas of Syria controlled by the authorities, according to data from the Syrian Ministry of Health, to which must be added more than 1,730 dead and 2,850 wounded in the areas controlled by the rebels in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo (northwest), according to the Syrian Civil Defense, known as ‘white helmets’, through its Twitter account.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
