EU Provides 400 Million Euros in Aid for Turkey’s Earthquake Victims

Sep 18, 2023 at 4:25 PM Update: 30 minutes ago

Turkey can count on 400 million euros from the European Union for the victims of the earthquake more than six months ago. EU countries agreed on Monday to transfer the first part of a larger sum of aid money for reconstruction.

Southeastern Turkey and neighboring northern Syria were hit by a major earthquake and several aftershocks in early February. More than 55,000 people died. The damage was extensive.

The European Commission previously announced that it would support Turkey with a total of 1 billion euros. According to Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, the economic damage from the earthquake in Turkey amounts to more than 93 billion euros.

More than seven months after the devastating earthquakes, Turkey is still dealing with the aftermath of the disaster. Demolition work is still underway, especially in the hard-hit province of Hatay.

Yet there are also bright spots, because in recent weeks the starting signal has been given for new housing construction projects in various places. Including in the affected provinces of Adiyaman and Kahramanmaras. In August, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said that preparations for 180,000 new homes have been completed. According to the president, a total of 319,000 new homes of the 650,000 planned in the earthquake area should be completed in the next six months.

During the opening of the conference on urban renewal earlier this week, Erdogan promised that the wishes of residents will be central to the reconstruction, “not the pursuit of profit”. Shortly after the earthquake, Erdogan received a lot of criticism. Under his leadership, a scheme was introduced in 2018 to legalize and register illegally built buildings and unsafe apartment buildings for a fee. Many of those buildings were in the affected provinces and collapsed last February.

Beeld: Getty Images

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2023-09-18 14:25:11
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