OUR Turkey The country’s interior minister said he would expand investigations into construction contractors suspected of violating safety standards. Suleiman Soyluas plans to accommodate those affected by the February 6 earthquake are ramping up.

Suleyman Soylu noted that 564 suspects have been identified so far, 160 have been arrested, and many are still under investigation. “Our cities will be built in the right places, our children will live in stronger cities. We know what challenge we will face and we will emerge stronger from it,” he told state television channel TRT Haber.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to rebuild the houses within a year.

Soylu noted that about 313,000 tents have been set up and that 100,000 containers will be set up in the earthquake-hit area to accommodate the homeless.

Over 50,000 dead

The death toll from earthquakes in Turkey has risen to 43,556 people, Soylu said the day before. At the same time, the death toll in Syria has risen to 6,747, according to the latest cross-references.

According to the Turkish interior minister, since the first earthquake on February 6, 7,930 tremors were registered, more than 600,000 apartments and 150,000 commercial properties were damaged.

Urban Development Minister Murat Kurum said 164,000 buildings with more than 530,000 apartments were destroyed or severely damaged by the earthquake.

The Turkish government has already begun procedures for concluding contracts for the construction of new apartments in the affected area, M. Kurum added.

Yesterday, Turkey also launched a temporary wage support program and banned layoffs in 10 cities to protect workers and businesses from the economic impact of the earthquake that struck the southern part of the country.

A massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6 damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings and left millions homeless.

Erdogan said on Tuesday that about 865,000 people are living in tents and 23,500 in containers, while 376,000 are in student and public hostels outside the affected area.

^{According to REUTERS}