President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Gaziantep, hit by the February 6 twin earthquakes. Drawing attention to the special place Gaziantep holds in the hearts, President Erdoğan stressed that they didn’t leave alone Gaziantep, just like other cities, following the earthquakes. Pointing out that he attended a month ago the delivery ceremony of the village homes built to heal the wounds caused by the quakes, President Erdoğan sent his greetings to all the districts of Gaziantep, primarily İslâhiye and Nurdağı. Underlining that all the means and resources of the nation were mobilized following the quakes, President Erdoğan said: “We have carried out all the works with diligence ranging from search and rescue to urgent aid for clothing and food, temporary housing to the construction of permanent houses. Our ministers and the representatives of institutions did not leave the area until things were put back on track, debris was removed and order was restored.” “THERE IS NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WHICH CAN REBUILD ITS CITIES IN SUCH A SHORT TIME” Underscoring that mayors, NGOs and volunteers have never abandoned quake victims, President Erdoğan stated: “We endeavored to reach out to every location and respond to every demand with the 650 thousand personnel we assigned in rotation to the region. We set up over 905 thousand tents and 112 thousand containers for about 3 million brothers and sisters of ours who didn’t want to leave the places they used to reside in. We provided rent and transportation aid to those who moved to either their hometowns or other cities. We immediately started the debris removal in places where search and rescue works were completed. They were followed by heavily-damaged buildings. Looking for a long-term restructuring rather than short-term solutions, we have included mildly-damaged buildings as well in the permanent-housing projects.” Highlighting that there is no other country in the world which can remove debris and rebuild its cities in such a short span of time, President Erdoğan pointed out that construction works were launched for permanent houses just two weeks after the quakes. The village homes delivered to their owners during Eid al-Fitr attest to the high speed of the ongoing construction works, the President stressed, adding: “We are kicking off the delivery of permanent houses in the months of October-November. Our goal is to build 650 thousand new houses, 319 thousand of them within a year, along with their infrastructure as well as their social and cultural areas, and rapidly rehabilitate our cities.” “It is also very pleasing that Gaziantep, a production and employment powerhouse of not only the region but also of our country with its monthly exports nearing one billion dollars, has been the fastest recovering city in this process,” the President said. “That is so because we cannot find the means to redress quake victims’ wounds in the absence of production and exports.” President Erdoğan continued his remarks as follows: “We will continue to stand with Gaziantep in every step it takes on the path to investments, employment, production and exports, as has been the case thus far. This city amply deserves and, even more importantly, amply returns whatever it is given.”