Vice President Oktay Made a Statement About the Earthquake

Vice President Fuat Oktay made a statement about the earthquake at the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) Coordination Center.

Some of the headlines from Oktay's speech are as follows: “We experienced an earthquake of 7,4 magnitude centered in Kahramanmaraş Pazarcık. Unfortunately, it is a very large-scale earthquake with extremely high intensity and affecting 10 provinces and a very large region. Maraş, Hatay, Osmaniye, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Şanlıurfa, Gaziantep, Kilis, Adana and Malatya provinces. From the very first moment, we started to meet in AFAD with all our ministers, especially our Minister of Interior, and then we tried to make the necessary assignments and first interventions.

From the very first moment, our President both follows and directs the event. He is following very closely. At the moment, it is about the fact that it is closely followed in its direct works to be transferred to Ankara. We sent our Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu to these provinces of Maraş. Our ministers Vahit Kirişci, Hulusi Akar and Fahrettin Koca in Hatay, our minister Muharrem Kasapoğlu in Osmaniye, our minister Adil Karaismailoğlu in Adıyaman, our minister Bekir Bozdağ in Diyarbakır, our minister Nureddin Nabati in Şanlıurfa, Antep and Kilis Murat our Minister of Institution, Adana' In Malatya, our ministers Derya Yanık and Fatih Dönmez, and Mehmet Nuri Ersoy and Mahmut Özer ministers have been appointed in Malatya.

From the very first moment, they went to their regions. Unfortunately, we are also struggling with extremely severe weather conditions at the same time. In these weather conditions, efforts were made to move to the region as quickly as possible.

As of now, we have lost 70 of our citizens in Maraş. Unfortunately, we expect these numbers to increase. Rest in peace. My condolences to his family and nation. As of now, 200 injured and 300 destroyed buildings in Maraş. I invite all our press and media organizations not to make any statements, especially in order not to cause information pollution, regarding the fact that no statement made here is trusted.

We have 4 deaths in Hatay. We have 7 injured and 200 destroyed buildings. We have 20 casualties in Osmaniye. We have 200 injured and 83 destroyed buildings. We have 13 losses in Adıyaman. We have 22 injured and 100 destroyed buildings. We have 14 casualties, 226 injured and 20 destroyed buildings in Diyarbakır. We have 18 casualties, 200 injured and 60 destroyed buildings in Şanlıurfa. We have 80 casualties, 600 injured and 581 destroyed buildings in Gaziantep. We have 8 casualties, 200 injured and 50 destroyed buildings in Kilis. We have 10 casualties, 118 injured and 16 destroyed buildings in Adana. We have 47 casualties, 550 injured and 300 destroyed buildings in Malatya.

As of now, we have 284 deaths, 2 thousand 323 injured and 710 destroyed buildings. Search and rescue teams were involved from the very first moment.

AFAD has 2 thousand 588 search and rescue teams. Out of these, 917 have actually reached the earthquake zones. Together with the locals, 150 of them continue their search and rescue efforts. Our gendarmerie search and rescue team is on the field with a team of 880 people, our police search and rescue team is on the field with a team of 117 people, our natural disaster battalion from our armed forces is on the field with a team of 200 people, and our volunteer NGOs are on the field with a team of 39 search and rescue personnel. We have 2 thousand 786 search and rescue teams in total and this number is increasing every moment.

In terms of shelter, the shipment of tents and blankets to the regions was made from the very first moment, and they have started to be made. The ones in our logistics warehouses in the region have also started to be evaluated. It is being tried to be delivered especially to our districts.

Unfortunately, Iskenderun Hospital, which is related to our hospitals, was an old building. There is nothing in our new buildings. There is a demolition in our hospital in Iskenderun. Work continues on our patients and staff here.

There is heavy damage in our hospital in Gölbaşı, Adıyaman. There, the patients are completely discharged. Hopefully we won't have any problems there.

We have good news there about schools. In most of the schools, a problem has reached us about one or two village schools almost so far. We also talked to the Minister of National Education a while ago. Our Minister is on his way to the field. As of the moment, our schools, dormitories and hostels are in good condition, thanks to the information received.

There is a problem at Hatay Airport. It is currently closed to flights. We have closed Maraş and Antep to civil flights. In other words, flights related to aid and earthquake activities continue.

As of now, there are 78 aftershocks. The largest of these is 6,6. We have 6 earthquakes greater than 3 and 5 aftershocks greater than 8.

Aftershocks are the ones that are dangerous after the main earthquakes. Because if the buildings are damaged and not demolished yet, the risk of a smaller-scale aftershock to destroy the building is very high.

In the first place, there may be some problems related to communication due to the density. It is useful to use only communication-sized phones. The absence of long calls or the presence of some internet calls will relieve the base stations.

So far, 102 mobile base stations have actually been sent to the earthquake zones. It was quickly put into operation. With 2 emergency communication vehicles and 504 generators, 175 personnel were dispatched to the area related to communication.

TURKSAT has also dispatched enough satellite stations to the region.

As a result of the damage in Kahramanmaraş-Gaziantep natural gas transmission line, natural gas flow to Gaziantep, Hatay and Kahramanmaraş provinces and to Pazarcık, Narlı, Besni, Gölbaşı, Nurdağı, Islahiye, Reyhanlı, Kırıkhan and Hassa districts was stopped. Our Ministry is about to start its maintenance and repair works very quickly.

Kilis natural gas line has been affected by this damage, but it continues to be fed from the gas inside the line.

Necessary coordination was established with the natural gas distribution companies in the region, hospitals, furnaces, etc. Gas supply continues to be provided to critical facilities by supplying either compressed or liquefied natural gas.

Repair of damage to Kahramanmaraş and Gaziantep natural gas transmission line may take several days. We are working on different measures regarding this.

We also have other creatures affected by the earthquake. Related to these, we have the Agriculture, Forestry, Food and Water Livestock Group of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. He also works hard. Animal tents are sent to the region to ensure that animals are protected from the cold in the same way. The same sensitivity will be shown there.

We started to receive very intense calls in the international arena regarding aid. In the first place, we stated that we can accept search and rescue and medical aids.

Once again, I would like to convey my condolences and best wishes to all our nation. Turkey is an earthquake zone, we can't escape it. It's not the earthquakes that kill, it's the buildings. Regarding buildings, earthquake preparation is more important than the response at the time of the earthquake.”