İZMİR - Despite the fact that large and small earthquakes occur almost every day in Turkey and Kurdistan, which are located in the earthquake zone, no precautions were taken, and 56 thousand 65 people lost their lives in the major earthquakes that have been experienced so far, only according to official figures.

Two earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.4 occurred in Maraş and with a magnitude of 6.4 and 6.5 in Gaziantep. The earthquakes in Maraş and Gaziantep were felt in Diyarbakır, Adıyaman, Malatya, Urfa, Batman, Bingöl, Elazığ, Kilis, Mardîn, Siirt, Şırnak, Van, Muş, Bitlis, Hakkari, Edirne, Osmaniye, Hatay and many other cities. So far, 284 people have lost their lives, 2 thousand 323 people have been injured, and 1,710 buildings have been destroyed.

While there have been many devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Kurdistan, which is an earthquake zone and has many fault lines, the precautions not taken increase the destruction and loss of life. While the Mereş earthquake was the third largest earthquake in the geography, it also brought other destructive earthquakes to mind. The earthquake zones are as follows:

* The 7.9 magnitude earthquake that took place in Erzincan on December 26-27, 1939 was the most destructive earthquake in the region. As a result of the earthquake, a total of 32 thousand 962 people lost their lives, and about 100 thousand people were injured. As a result of the earthquake, 116 thousand 720 buildings were destroyed.

* On November 24, 1976, 3,840 people lost their lives in the 7.5-magnitude earthquake in Van Çaldıran district. In the earthquake, in which 9 thousand 232 buildings were damaged, 95 percent of the houses in the district were destroyed. In addition to the earthquake, there were deaths due to freezing as a result of the night temperature falling to -17 degrees in the region.

* On 17 August 1999, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6, the epicenter of which was Kocaeli Gölcük district, was felt in a wide geography as far as Ankara and İzmir, as well as İstanbul, Sakarya, Düzce. According to official reports, there were 17,480 deaths and 23,781 injuries in the earthquake. In the earthquake, in which 133,683 buildings collapsed, approximately 600 thousand people were left homeless, while 16 million citizens were affected at different levels.

* The earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 and epicenter in Düzce on November 12, 1999 was felt in many provinces as well as in Ukraine. According to the statement of the Prime Ministry Crisis Management Center, 845 people were killed and 4,948 people were injured in the earthquake. Approximately 16 thousand buildings were damaged in the earthquake.

* The 6.4 magnitude earthquake that took place in Bingöl on May 1, 2003 was felt in all the provinces of the region. According to official figures, at least 176 people died in the city, while 625 buildings collapsed or suffered severe damage. 84 deaths occurred when the ward block collapsed at the boarding school in Celtiksuyu

* The 7.2 magnitude earthquake that took place in Wan on October 23, 2011 was felt in Northern Iraq as well as many provinces in the region. According to official figures, 604 people lost their lives in the earthquake that caused great destruction throughout the province.

* The 6.5 magnitude earthquake that took place in Harput on January 24, 2020 was felt in Iraq, Iran, Israel, Lebanon and Syria as well as the provinces of Kurdistan. While buildings in Harput, Malatya, Maraş, Diyarbakır, Urfa, Adıyaman and Batman were destroyed in the earthquake, 41 people, 37 of them in Harput and 4 of them in Malatya, lost their lives.

* On October 30, 2020, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 Mw, whose epicenter was off the Greek island of Samos, 23 km from the Seferihisar district of Turkey's Izmir province, caused great destruction in Izmir. The earthquake and the tsunami that occurred as a result of the earthquake, a total of 117 people died in İzmir, 1 of which was as a result of drowning, while 1,34 people were injured. In Greece, 2 people were killed and 19 injured. According to the statements of the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, 506 buildings, which were severely damaged, will be immediately demolished.