New homes to be ready for quake victims by November: Erdoğan

KAHRAMANMARAŞ

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced that the government will hand over the first batch of new homes to earthquake victims by October or November, underlining that their priority will be the reconstruction of the quake-hit provinces if they win the presidential elections on May 28.

Over the weekend, Erdoğan visited Adıyaman, Kahramanmaraş, Hatay and Gaziantep, four out of 11 southern provinces that were severely hit by the deadly Feb. 6 quakes that claimed the lives of 50,000 people. He was accompanied by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli and New Welfare Party (YRP) Chairman Fatih Erbakan.

“We have set an objective for us regarding the permanent shelters. We had said, ‘We will revive all these cities by building 650,000 new homes, of which 319,000 will be constructed within a year,’” Erdoğan said at a rally he held in Kahramanmaraş.

“Our works continue at full speed. We are planning to hand over the permanent homes by October or November,” he added.

Recalling that he got 72 percent of the votes in the first round of the presidential polls on May 14, he said he hopes to increase it to 80 percent. The People Alliance has a majority in the parliament with 322 seats and he surpasses his closest rival by 2.5 million votes, Erdoğan said. “I believe Kahramanmaraş will mark a new turnout record and will overwhelmingly vote for us on May 28. We will write the story of the ‘Century of Türkiye’ together and revive Kahmaranmaraş together.”

Erdoğan recalled that Türkiye will mark its centennial in 2023 and that’s why they wanted to highlight this under the “Century of Türkiye vision.”

“This Century of Türkiye is not an empty vision. We have built it on the infrastructure we have established in the past 21 years,” he stressed.

Calling on the people not to leave their job unfinished and go to vote on May 28, Erdoğan said, “Today is the day to take a step for realizing all our dreams. This is the day to share the good news about strong and prosperous Türkiye with our children.”

Erdoğan slammed his rival, Nation Alliance’s joint presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for looking down on the people who did not vote for him in the first round. “They stood against the people after losing every election,” he said.