After the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria on February 6, 2023, Erzin made it to the headlines in the world media: allegedly, the buildings in the city were hardly damaged because its mayor didn’t allow the construction of houses that violated the technology.

Faktyoxla Lab. has tried to check if this version is correct.

Earthquakes in southeastern Türkiye on the morning of February 6 destroyed more than 50,000 buildings in Türkiye and Syria. Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for more than 130 construction company employees who may have been responsible for illegal and substandard construction. At the same time, according to media headlines, not a single building was damaged in the city of Erzin in southeastern Türkiye. Many have called this phenomenon the “miracle in Erzin.” As Kommersant and Izvestia write, the city owes this “miracle” to its mayor, who “was called a hero because of the buildings that survived the earthquake.” The “Miracle in Erzin” is also actively discussed by bloggers and social media users.

The earthquake on February 6, 2023 caused great damage to Hatay province, located about 100 km from the epicenter. As of February 17, about 15,000 buildings were destroyed in Hatay. Among the news of the destruction, headlines about the city of Erzin stood out, where allegedly not a single building was damaged. You can check the degree of damage to buildings through the online platform of the Turkish Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change. As of February 17, as many as 847 buildings were examined in Erzin, of which seven were completely destroyed, 53 were badly damaged, and 109 were partially damaged. That is, there are still destroyed and completely collapsed houses in Erzin, although their percentage (7.1%) is small compared to other cities.

If we compare the situation in Erzin with similar settlements in the province of Hatay, we can see that the levels of destruction are approximately similar. For example, in Payas, which is also located in Hatay and roughly corresponds to Erzin in size and population, 5.6% of the surveyed buildings were found to be badly damaged or destroyed. Of course, these figures give only an approximate picture, since such statistics don’t take into account the number of storeys of buildings, building density and other factors that potentially affect the extent of damage.

Some seismologists say that the relatively small scale of destruction in Erzin is due to several factors. First, the location of the city relative to the tectonic fault. If you look at the seismic activity map from February 6 to 17, 2023, you can see that most of the tremors occurred along the plate fault and were not felt as strongly in the Erzin region. Okan Tuysuz, a former professor at Istanbul Technical University, noted: “There is no tectonic movement near Erzin. The fault runs 30-40 km from the city, and between them there is a large mountain range Amanos.

Secondly, many seismologists believe that the geological structure of the soil “protected” Erzin from great destruction. Research shows that rocky soils provide better stability, while sandy soils increase destructive vibrations. Sukru Ersoy, professor at Yildiz Technical University, said: “Hassa, Islahiye, Kirikhan, Antakya and Samandag suffered greatly due to poor ground conditions. Perhaps it was because of the ground that Erzin suffered less.” According to Turkish geophysicist Ali Yildizel, “Erzin sits on a layer of rock, and most likely this position helped to protect it from disaster.”

Thirdly, the city is mainly built up with low-rise buildings and private houses. The higher the number of storeys, the greater the amplitude of oscillations and the greater the probability of collapse. In Erzin, apartment buildings do not exceed four floors. In addition, many owners of private houses built them on their own, paying special attention to the foundation and strengthening the sandy soil with stones. This allowed them to make their buildings more resistant.

And finally, fourthly, the relatively small scale of destruction in Erzin is still the merit of the city authorities. The current mayor of the city, Okkes Elmasoglu, has been in office since March 2019. Although there are not many buildings built under his administration in Erzin, Elmasoglu claims that he has repeatedly refused illegal additions of floors and the erection of illegal and multi-storey buildings. Elmasoglu himself said in an interview: “Shortly after the elections, one of my distant relatives came to me and said: “We were fined for illegal construction.” I told him that there was nothing I could do, and he replied: “Are you the only honest one in Türkiye?” It is difficult to check whether his words are true and how many buildings Elmasoglu “saved” from collapse in this way. But city residents do give credit to the city’s incumbent mayor and previous administrations, which city residents say have always opposed high-rise development.

Thus, Erzin survived not by a “miracle,” but due to a combination of factors: the small size of the city, its favorable tectonic position and the geological structure of the soil. At the same time, Mayor Elmasoglu’s refusal to issue licenses for construction in violation of the norms, according to his own statements and reviews of the residents of the city, also played a role.