President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has marked the delivery of the 455,000th new house built for survivors of the catastrophic 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye's south.
“Today, we are witnessing firsthand a great achievement... that almost no other country in the world could have accomplished,” Erdoğan said on Dec. 27 during a ceremony in the hard-hit province of Hatay.
The event came nearly two years after twin earthquakes measuring 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude devastated southern Türkiye and northern Syria on Feb. 6, 2023. The disaster killed more than 53,000 people in Türkiye and over 8,000 in Syria, leveling entire neighborhoods and displacing millions.
“We are proud to deliver 455,000th disaster housing units built in the 11 provinces affected by the earthquake, to our brothers," Erdoğan said.
The latest handover included more than 55,000 units in Hatay and some 22,000 in Kahramanmaraş. Erdoğan noted that the total count slightly exceeded his earlier pledge to complete 453,000 units by the end of 2025.
The president labeled opposition figures as “earthquake tourists” who he claimed exploited the tragedy for political gain during election cycles.
"While we were working hard to heal the wounds, there were unscrupulous people exploiting the disaster of the century. Look, now none of them are around," Erdoğan said.
“The earthquake tourists are gone, the populists are gone, those who showered our people with promises to win elections are gone, those spreading disinformation are gone... But we are here, we are with you.”
Beyond housing, the president said his administration has overhauled the infrastructure of the affected provinces, including Adıyaman and Gaziantep.
Turning to regional politics, Erdoğan linked Türkiye's domestic stability to the broader Middle East. He warned against "merchants of blood and chaos" who he said seek to destabilize the region.
"For Türkiye to walk confidently toward its bright future, it needs a strong [ruling] AKP and a strong People's Alliance. Our citizens, along with all our brothers and sisters in our heart and cultural geography, particularly in Syria, Palestine and Iraq, need us," he said.
"You can see what is happening in our region, who is playing what games and who is siding with whom. Those who feed on Muslim blood, those who want to pit us against each other are working very hard."
The 2023 tremors were the deadliest to hit the region in two decades. In Türkiye alone, more than 35,000 buildings collapsed, and another 200,000 were heavily damaged. In Syria, the destruction compounded over a decade of civil war and economic crisis, causing massive displacement in regions such as Aleppo and Idlib.
