51,000 places have been allocated in Antalya hotels for citizens affected by the earthquake in Turkey, refugees have already started to be resettled in hotels. This was stated in the Turkish media by the head of the local Foreign Ministry, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, who reported on the work done and, in particular, on the meeting with representatives of the tourism sector in Antalya.
Hotels and guest houses of government institutions, which are closed due to the winter season, will be allocated for citizens affected by the earthquake. As a ministry, we are doing everything possible,” said the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Having reported on the offer of help — and it was offered by teams from 76 countries and many have already taken action, teams from 36 countries arrived, including Ukraine, Çavuşoğlu explained about the hotels. “We started research to provide people with temporary accommodation in different cities. The Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, coordinated the work on the ground, and we worked on accommodation in hotels in the Antalya and Mugla region,” the minister said.
He also announced that the work in Antalya started on Tuesday morning, covering Antalya, Alanya, and other resorts. As a result, 51,000 places were allocated for evacuees and those left homeless. It is mainly about hotels temporarily closed for the winter season, which will be opened urgently, in a day or two, and some of the open hotels are also involved.
Refugees are brought to resort in Turkey by buses and planes. At the same time, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs promised to think about what can be done if the need for housing remains “in the medium and long term”, that is, before the start of the season.
It will be recalled that early on Monday morning a natural disaster struck Turkey: a terrible earthquake, the strongest in the last 20 years. The magnitude of the earthquake was 7.4 points, a lot, and the “echo” of underground shocks was felt in more than 10 countries. At the same time, according to the Turkish Agency for Combating Natural Disasters and Emergency Situations (AFAD), an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 occurred at 04:17 in the Pazardzhik district of Kahramanmaras. It was followed almost immediately, at 04:26, by another earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4, the epicenter of which is located in the Nurdagh district of Gaziantep near the Turkish-Syrian border. Aftershocks were felt throughout Turkey, up to the resort provinces. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that the earthquake struck early in the morning, when everyone was still asleep, so the previous number of dead and injured continued to rise.
Then another earthquake occurred at 13:23 and the magnitude of the earthquake was registered as 7.8, the epicenter is Elbistan district of Kahramanmarash province,” they say. It is also reported that new aftershocks are felt in Damascus, Latakia, and several other provinces of Syria. And also in the capital of Turkey, Ankara, and its main resort, Antalya. It should be noted that the number of earthquake victims alone is currently close to 35,000 people; accordingly, the number of those left homeless – those who are expected to be accommodated in hotels – is even more.