A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck near Gaziantep in southern Turkey before dawn, followed nine hours later by a second tremor of magnitude 7.5, causing catastrophic damage across eleven Turkish provinces and northwestern Syria.
More than fifty thousand people were killed and hundreds of thousands of buildings collapsed or were rendered unsafe. Freezing weather and damaged roads hampered rescue efforts in the critical first days.
Investigations focused on construction standards and on amnesties that had legalised buildings not meeting seismic codes. The disaster dominated Turkey's presidential election campaign later that year.
