The International Media Coordination Office of the Presidency’s Directorate of Communications of the Republic of Türkiye is organising a media programme for international press on the occasion of the third anniversary of the 6 February earthquakes. The programme is intended to provide international press members with the opportunity to observe the work being conducted in the earthquake zone on-site.
The media programme for international press will run from tomorrow through 6 February.
A total of 32 press members from 11 countries—the United States, Germany, China, the Republic of Korea, Italy, Hungary, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Egypt, and Azerbaijan—are participating in the programme.
The invited journalists were selected from those who travelled to the region after the 6 February 2023 earthquakes and personally witnessed the disaster. In this context, participants will have the opportunity to see firsthand the current state of cities that suffered extensive devastation three years ago and to comparatively assess the outcomes of the reconstruction and recovery process.
As part of the international media programme, field visits to the provinces of Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, and Osmaniye will be conducted between 4-6 February, and the reconstruction efforts completed and underway in the earthquake-affected cities will be presented on site to international press members.
Within the scope of the programme, participants will visit permanent housing projects completed after the disaster, newly established reserve development areas, and urban planning works finalised in city centres, as well as cultural and historical sites whose restoration was completed following the earthquakes. In this context, sites of significant historical, cultural, and social importance—damaged during the 6 February earthquakes and restored as part of restoration and revitalisation efforts—will be showcased on site. These include, in Hatay, the Saint Pierre Church Memorial Museum, the Habib-i Neccar Mosque, the Historic Hatay Parliament Building, and Kurtuluş Avenue; and in Kahramanmaraş, the Archaeology Museum, the Covered Bazaar, and the Grand Mosque. Through these visits, participants will be informed about how restored cultural heritage sites have been reintegrated into the daily life and social fabric of the cities following the earthquake. In addition, to mark the third anniversary of the earthquakes, concrete outcomes of the reconstruction process will be shared in briefings to be held by relevant officials.
As part of the programme, Murat Kurum, Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, will meet with international members of the press. During the Osmaniye leg of the media programme, international press members will also follow the event and the address to be delivered by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the occasion of the earthquake anniversary. Since 2024, media programmes organised by the Directorate of Communications have enabled 334 journalists from 26 countries to observe the ongoing reconstruction and revitalisation efforts on the ground following the earthquakes.