Earthquakes in Turkey came close to the resort area: does it make sense to go

You will involuntarily believe the variegated esotericists who assure that “damage has been sent to Turkey.” While the Turkish authorities urgently resolve the issue of where to resettle the homeless, one of the predictions came true, which no one wanted to believe in – tremors crept up to the resort area.

What is happening now on the Turkish Riviera, we learned from those who are now there.

The issue with the victims of the disaster, now placed in the hotels of the resort area, local administrations should be resolved by mid-March – this is the order from above. The task is not an easy one: there are now about 75 thousand refugees in Antalya alone. In the meantime, according to the official report of AFAD (At 21.22 on Monday), an earthquake of magnitude 4.1 struck in the Aegean Sea near the resort of Izmir.

– Guides reassure that it is not as strong as in Khatai, Adiyaman, and Kahramanmarash, where it was more than 7 points, – a Russian, who is in Izmir, answers the question about the situation and mood in the resorts. – Everything is quiet here, but in Foca (a coastal settlement 70 km from Izmir – author), they say there was a panic, everyone ran out of hotels and houses. Now our people again began to study forecasts, from which they had only recently been distracted.

And there is nothing joyful in the forecasts: according to Turkish geologists, 45 of the country’s 81 provinces, including Istanbul and the resorts of Antalya, Bodrum, Marmaris and Izmir, are at risk of new tremors. And this further complicates the problem of refugees, solutions to which have already been proposed.

– Our newspapers write that the refugees will be transferred to hotels in ski resorts, – said Ufuk, a native of Antalya. “The season is just coming to an end. But we don’t think it’s real. Firstly, there are much fewer hotels in the mountains than on the coasts. Secondly, the road to the mountains is difficult. In addition, ski resorts are also at risk, and avalanches can also go there.

Indeed, according to the local tourism industry, hotels in ski resorts, of which there are 3 large and several small in Turkey, can accommodate 15 thousand people in total, which is 5 times less than in Antalya alone.

“Individuals are also offered to rent part of their housing to refugees for a year,” Ufuk adds, “and rent and utility bills will be paid from the governor’s treasury. I think that many would go for it – and utility bills keep growing and eating up half the budget, and the victims want to help. But as they began to find out, it turned out that by “part of housing” officials mean a separate house, and not part of their own. But not everyone has empty separate houses. And those who have, don’t hand them over to refugees, but to tourists.

This idea is confirmed by the Turkish press: the program “My home is your home”, which looks tempting, gathered less than 10,000 people who wanted to rent out their individual houses to the victims of the elements.

– Everything was so good! says the owner of a small hotel in Side. – Newspapers only printed how quickly our tourism industry is recovering from pandemic losses! And here it is … Tourists do not go – out of fear of new shocks. And the Turks themselves, who have the opportunity, go abroad from the zones declared seismic. But I have nowhere to run.

– Will you go home? – I’m interested in relocators from the Russian Federation who settled in Izmir. – Newspapers write that the next Izmir.

– We will definitely not go home, but we are considering Baku.

Meanwhile, the head of the Turkish JMO (Chamber of Geological Engineers), geophysicist Bayram Ali Celtik, clarified that when they talk about the threat to the resort towns of Turkey, we are talking about the entire coast – a 640-kilometer coastline, on which all resort settlements and large freestanding hotels are concentrated .

“Demre, Finike, Kemer, Manavgat, Serik, Alanya – all these areas are built on alluvial soil, which means that the most destructive effect from the earthquake is expected there,” the scientist told the Turkish press. And he added that in the already affected regions, aftershocks are still continuing – residual shocks, they have already counted more than 7200 after the “main” earthquake. According to AFAD (Turkish Ministry of Emergency Situations), they were felt by residents and tourists of 11 provinces of the country not yet affected by the disaster, including Trabzon, Rize, Orda, Giresun and Gyumushkhane in the Black Sea coast. And the Dutch seismologist Frank Hugerbits, meanwhile, warns that a new trouble for the Turkish resort area may fall already in the interval from March 2 to 7.