Turkey Built 455,000 Homes for 2023 Earthquake Survivors—a Lesson For Gaza Reconstruction
Dec. 31—Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presided over a ceremony marking the turnover of 455,000 new housing units built since the 2023 earthquake that left millions homeless. This major accomplishment serves as a lesson for the rapid reconstruction of the Gaza Strip once there is a commitment to and resources for the task. This number of housing units would be more than enough to house the 2.1 million residents of the Gaza Strip.
“Today, we are witnessing firsthand a great achievement… that almost no other country in the world could have accomplished,” Erdoğan said at the ceremony held on Dec. 27.“We are proud to deliver 455,000th disaster housing units built in the 11 provinces affected by the earthquake, to our brothers,” Erdoğan said. Erdoğan said the government rebuilt significant amounts of infrastructure in addition to the housing, whose completion more than fulfilled the government’s pledge to build 453,000 units by the end of 2025.
An earthquake measuring 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude devastated southern Turkey and northern Syria Feb. 6, 2023. The disaster killed more than 53,000 people in Turkey and in Syria, leveling entire neighborhoods and displacing millions.
Both Turkey and Egypt are deeply involved in efforts to resolve the Gaza crisis and have considerable civil engineering and construction capacities that could be deployed for the reconstruction of Gaza if given the resources. The Egyptian government has already drafted a preliminary reconstruction plan, while the LaRouche Oasis Plan, promoted by the Schiller Institute and the LaRouche Organization, would serve as a much broader regional reconstruction and economic integration plan through providing water, power and transportation capacity.
Sources close to the White House report that President Donald Trump, who has experience in the construction and housing industry, has the idea to mobilize both Turkey and Egypt in the Gaza reconstruction, and would like to see new housing starting to be built as soon as next month, starting in the areas of southern Gaza in and around Rafah, which have already been levelled. These sources report that he told the Butcher of Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu that Turkey is going to be involved in Gaza reconstruction. Netanyahu has objected to Turkish involvement claiming that its leader Erdogan supports Hamas. Trump is said to have reminded the Israeli, that he, Trump, is in charge of the reconstruction and he will determine who is involved.