Is Turkey an Earthquake Country?

It is important that the fact that Turkey is an earthquake country should be corroborated by scientific data. Researches show that major Turkish cities such as Istanbul, Izmir, Malatya, Erzincan, Hatay and Van have been struck by devastating earthquakes several times in the past. According to the earthquake catalogue for Turkey drawn up by the researchers Ambraseys and Finkel, 12 earthquakes causing very severe damage have taken place in Istanbul over the last 1500 years. The Marmara earthquake of 17 August, 1999, resulted in 17.479 deaths and 43.953 injuries. One hundred and twenty-four earthquakes causing more than 1.000 deaths, have taken place across the world since 1900. Seventeen of these were in Turkey. In 2000, Parsons et al. calculated a 62 +/- 15% probability of a powerful earthquake in the vicinity of Istanbul within the following 30 years. These findings clearly reveal that Turkey is one of the world's major earthquake countries. Turkey and Turkish emergency medicine must bear this reality in mind in all present and future planning.