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Situated
at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Turkey is a disaster-prone
country constantly facing the severe effects of earthquakes, floods,
landslides, rockfalls, fires, and avalanches. Located on three
active fault lines (North Anatolia, East Anatolia and Aegean Graben
lines), the country is most threatened by earthquakes, while other
natural threats such as floods and landslides pose occasional
problems in various regions. There are 15 probable non-ruptured
spatial seismic gaps. Earthquakes have occurred at the boundaries
of these segments, which are also the probable sites of future
earthquakes. Until 1999, the Turkish Government’s institutional
capacity to respond to emergency situations was extremely limited
and lacked a functioning disaster management system. |
