Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan answered the questions of journalists on the NTV-Star TV joint live broadcast.

Erdoğan began his speech by noting that the month of Ramadan has begun as of tonight. He saidturkey "We will wake up for suhoor tonight, and I hope we will begin to breathe the spiritual atmosphere of Ramadan. May this spiritual peace for the entire Islamic world serve as a conduit for mercy on our martyrs, whom we sent to eternity in the earthquake and the elevation of their martyrdom. May it also aid in the healing of our over 100,000 wounded.”

Upon being asked to provide a general assessment of the work carried out on the 45th day of the Kahramanmaraş and Hatay-centered earthquakes, President Erdoğan said that debris removal and the construction of tent cities, container cities and prefabricated houses are proceeding rapidly.

Stating that the foundations of permanent residences will begin to be laid, Erdoğan continued as follows:

"We will begin laying the foundations tomorrow. As promised, I pray that Allah will grant us the ability to complete these permanent residences within a year. Obviously, no other country could react and take action faster than Türkiye in the face of such massive destruction. We previously passed a similar test successfully. In the immediate aftermath of the quake, we dispatched teams, vehicles, and equipment from all over Türkiye to the affected region. Each member of our cabinet was dispatched to the earthquake zone and tasked to coordinate a province. Since that day, thankfully, our Ministers have served as coordinators there without leaving the region.

In addition to the deputies of each province serving there, officials from other provinces, including governors, assisted the Ministers there. To serve in the earthquake zone, we mobilized mayors and municipalities of other provinces, particularly metropolitan municipalities. We dispatched soldiers, police, gendarmes, paramedics, miners, and firefighters to the region, as well as anyone else you can think of. As you are aware, miners, in particular, possess exceptional underground and mining skills. We benefited greatly from them by sending them here. During this process, we mobilized thousands of pieces of construction equipment, ranging from aircraft to helicopters, ships to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), for our earthquake victims."

"We witnessed the successful work of all search and rescue teams"

Erdoğan stated that they began professional search and rescue and debris removal operations within the first few hours of the earthquake. Erdoğan said: "Of course, there were harsh winter conditions back then. We witnessed their successful work. They did not give up, they did not tire, and they completed these tasks."

Erdoğan stated that after the earthquakes, the nation's greatness was once again recognized, saying, "Our nation thankfully demonstrated the solidarity of the century in the face of the disaster of the century. We evacuated more than 3 million people very quickly. None of our citizens was left alone or helpless, neither in the earthquake zone nor where they went. From now on, the earthquake will be our top priority; our only concern will be to heal the wounds.”

Erdoğan also noted the following about the latest situation regarding the investigations:

"Our prosecutors are investigating those responsible for the construction of buildings that collapsed in the earthquake. So far, action has been taken against 1364 suspects. Meanwhile, 302 suspects have been arrested, 466 suspects have been placed under judicial control, and arrest warrants have been issued for 312 suspects. It has been discovered that 4 of the suspects are abroad, and 64 of them have passed away. Among the 302 individuals arrested, 106 were contractors, 163 were in charge of construction, 15 were building owners, and 18 were those who altered the structure.

85 of the 466 suspects under judicial control are contractors, 294 are those in charge of construction, 56 are building owners, and 31 are those who carried out alterations in buildings. Legal proceedings continue. Once the investigations are concluded, indictments will also be sent to the courts. We will closely monitor each phase of the procedure, particularly the Ministry of Justice. Those responsible for my nation's suffering and those who failed to carry out their responsibilities will be held accountable before the law. There is no way out of here."

"We are not apprentices in this field; we have passed the journeyman test and attained mastery"

In response to a question regarding the current state of planning for the construction of permanent residences, Erdoğan stated that the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change possesses both past experience and prototype projects.

Noting that the period of rebuilding and recovering the cities has officially and effectively begun, Erdoğan stated, "We have already taken some steps. I always say that we have experienced similar situations in Van, Bingöl, İzmir, Antalya, Muğla and Manavgat. We demonstrated this experience not only through the enormous vertical architectural style in cities but also through the construction of ground-plus 3–4-story buildings and village houses. In other words, we are not apprentices in this field; we have passed the journeyman test and attained mastery."

Emphasizing that thousands of architects, engineers, hundreds of academics, and tens of thousands of workers are engaged in extensive work on the new settlements, Erdoğan continued:

"On one hand, ground surveys continue at a rapid pace. With the help of these ground surveys, we will continue to construct permanent homes on dry, solid ground, as opposed to wet, soft ground. Since February 21st, a total of 40,104 disaster-resistant houses have been put out to tender, including 13,629 in Gaziantep, 2,280 in Adıyaman, 645 in Kilis, 2,928 in Hatay, 8,773 in Kahramanmaraş, 897 in Şanlıurfa, 6,644 in Malatya, 505 in Elazığ, 1,171 in Adana, 1,657 in Osmaniye, and 1,122 in Diyarbakır.

Similarly, 6,223 village houses have been tendered, including 600 in Osmaniye, 620 in Kahramanmaraş, 2,800 in Malatya, 1,500 in Adıyaman, 300 in Şanlıurfa, 310 in Gaziantep, and 93 in Kilis. Thus, the construction process of a total of 46 thousand 327 disaster houses and village houses in the disaster zone has begun, and I hope that within a year, we will build 319,000 houses in 11 provinces and 650,000 houses in total and deliver them to the beneficiaries. We will lay the foundation for 8,773 houses in Kahramanmaraş, which we will visit tomorrow with Devlet Bahçeli.

"Houses were built on the fault line"

Erdoğan responded to criticism that "it is not healthy to lay the foundation for permanent residences while the aftershocks continue," saying:

"Whoever makes a claim is obliged to prove it. We are not taking these actions for the first time in these circumstances. Of course, those who say this do not have such an experience in their past. You set the target, but it could take 13 months, 14 months, or 15 months. We proved this in the massive earthquake that occurred in Van. We proved that from the center of Van to Erciş. Those interested can visit Van and view Lake Van from the Edremit district. This government restored that district overlooking Lake Van after that earthquake. In the same way, we have completely rebuilt Erciş. In İzmir, for example, we do not use vertical architecture, and the first thing we did was to conduct ground checks quickly.

Unfortunately, in Hatay, these residences and constructions were built in the Amik Plain extensions. According to the information we currently have, all this area is on fault lines.

Erdoğan stated that all houses built on the fault line date before 1999.

Seismic isolators will be used in public construction projects

Expressing that the citizens in the earthquake zone entered the damaged houses despite the warning, Erdoğan said:

"Our hope is that they will heed these warnings in the coming days. We will take these steps by acting on the ground plus 3 and ground plus 4 projects that we have. We will even use seismic isolators to build state houses or public buildings. Despite the increase in cost, I have given Minister Murat Kurum the necessary instructions. I advised him not to avoid these expenses and to use seismic isolators in our construction projects. We recently held a meeting of 110 people in Istanbul with state officials and academics. The second of these meetings took place in Gaziantep, chaired by Minister Kurum.

After the Van and Kütahya earthquakes, we learned that it is possible to construct buildings in these regions if the ground survey is performed correctly, the soil strength is accurately determined, the ground has sufficient reinforcement, and, most importantly, if areas far from fault lines are selected. We laid our foundations 15 to 20 days after the Elazığ earthquake, despite the continuing aftershocks. Thankfully, none of the houses we constructed following the last earthquake sustained even the slightest damage. If any damage or cracks occur in the concrete and moulds we poured due to aftershocks, they are quickly repaired with various techniques. Currently, we are planning and initiating construction in the region based solely on these criteria. We have sensitivities about the setting of concrete and the formation of cracks and destruction. At this stage, our engineers execute the concrete casting procedures with extreme precision and care.” (ILKHA)