Our Presidency Organized The “We Made İt Together From 23 October To 23 October”' Panel İn Van
(22 October 2012)
An international earthquake panel titled "We made it together from 23 October to 23 October" was organized in Van by AFAD within the scope of activities organized to commemorate the first anniversary of the Van Earthquake.
Officials from the Turkish General Staff, the Ministries, public agencies and organizations, NGOs, and around 200 participants from abroad were present at the panel.
The keynote speeches were made by Van Yüzüncü Yıl University Rector Prof. Dr. Peyami BATTAL, TOKİ Vice-President Orhan YÜCE, Van Governor Münir KARALOĞLU and our Director General Dr. Fuat OKTAY.
AFAD Director General Dr. Fuat OKTAY talked about the works carried out after the Van Earthquake under the coordination of our Presidency, saying "Turkey has reached the point of risk management rather than crisis management. As AFAD, we put emphasis on disaster preparedness and risk mitigation rather than post-disaster response”.
AFAD Director General Dr. Fuat OKTAY said that around 40,000 residences, 3,000 workplaces and 9,000 stables were heavily damaged and became unusable as a result of the earthquake, and went on as follows:
“In the first 6 hours following the earthquake, our Presidency transferred to the affected region over 1000 search & rescue, health and Red Crescent personnel, together with their equipment.
Response arrived in 20 minutes after the earthquake.
Within the first 6 hours, search and rescue works were started in every single wreckage.
In 18 days, a total of 75 thousand tents were erected.
175 thousand citizens took shelter in 30 thousand containers installed in Van and Erciş.
With the support of our government and with the cooperation of AFAD – TOKİ – Van Governorate, we laid the foundation for 10,443 buildings in Van and 4,880 buildings in Erciş, making a total of 15,323 residences, on the 39th day of the earthquake.
In the matter of one year, we delivered 15,323 disaster homes to our citizens.
The cost of the post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction works have reached TL 3.6 billion.
After the earthquake, the entire Turkey, with its state and its people, were in Van, and we still are. The success in Van is the joint success of all the agencies and organizations in this hall. Indeed, we achieved it together, and we put Van on its feet.
I would like to thank our Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ERDOĞAN, Deputy Prime Minister Beşir ATALAY, all ministers, agencies and non-governmental organizations for their support during the works carried out in Van.”
After the opening speeches, the Panel continued with 4 separate sessions in which the participants assessed the works in Van.
