Turkish-Greek Cooperation in the Earthquake

The works have come to the final stage in Zeytinburnu, which was selected as the pilot region under the scope of earthquake master plan. Almost the entirety of the buildings were controlled while the obtained data are turned into reports by the specialists assigned in ODTU (METU), ITU, Bogazici and Yildiz Technical Universities. The report to come out will, in a sense, determine the destiny of Istanbul.

A cooperation process was started between Turkey and Greece in order to reduce the vital and material losses in a prosper great catastrophe. In that context, a meeting was held in the Municipal Office of Zeytinburnu. Dr. Nicholas Petropoulos, the Chairman of Emergency Case Researches Center of National Pedagogy Institute of Greece and Sociology Advisor, Dr. Dimitros Raftopoulos, the Chief of Technical Unit of the Municipal Office of Ano Liosiya, Dr. Nicholas Voulgaris, professor at the Department of Geophysics of National and Kapodistrian Athens University, Dr. Ioanna Dermitzaki, member of Psychiatry Research Institute of the same university, Mr. George Zafeiropoulos, a physician, Ms. Miranda Dandoulaki, a member of European Union Earthquake Joint Research Unit, and Prof. Dr. Murat Balamir, ODTU Urban and Region Planner, Prof. Dr. Nuray Karanci, professor in the department of Psychology of the same university, Prof. Dr. Bahattin Aksit, a professor of department of Sociology and Prof. Dr. Atilla Ansal, a professor in the Kandilli Institute of Bogazici University attended the meeting chaired by Murat Aydin, the Mayor of Zeytinburnu. The research named “Comparing the Methods of Reducing the Earthquake Damages: Specimens of Istanbul and Athens” is planned to be completed by the end of this year.

In the meeting where the earthquake experiences of Turkey and Greece were examined and policies that are to be followed were discussed, a damage reducing guide for local governments was decided to be prepared. Besides, doing mutual publications so that the two countries get to know to each other in relation to earthquakes and improvement of other issues of cooperation and fields of scientific research were agreed.

The following opinion took part within the joint declaration issued at the end of the meeting: “Another reference of a multi-disciplinary approach in reducing earthquake damages is to mobilize the segments of community and direct participations in measurement taking. Establishment of an international fund to support the projects of risk reducing in fields with high danger should be seen as an inevitable goal by now. The improvement of the communities’ field of joint action and cooperation fields, the identification of the methods to develop damage reducing and life media and opportunities multi-directionally in the Turkish and the Greek practices will constitute the base of this research.”