Turkey-Syria earthquake

February 6, 2023

A magnitude 7.8 quake struck before dawn on a cold February night along a fault no one had adequately warned about, flattening apartment blocks across southern Turkey and northern Syria. More than 59,000 died in the two countries combined. Whole cities like Antakya simply vanished. Turkey's election-year construction shortcuts became evidence in the rubble. Erdogan won the election anyway.