Turkey’s Erdogan administration vowed to build 650,000 homes within a year in the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquakes that struck southeastern and southern parts of the country on February 6, 2023, but only around one-third were completed by the end of 2025, according to the main Turkish opposition party’s leader.

“Nearly 270,000 of our citizens are still living in container settlements across 11 provinces. This is nothing to boast about. It’s a shameful situation,” said the CHP’s Ozgur Ozel.

Ozel hit out at what he said were the continuing failures of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government in post-earthquake recovery efforts ahead of the third anniversary of the tragedy that took the lives of at least 53,000 people. Erdogan for his part has praised what he says are unprecedented efforts in quickly delivering new homes for victims of the earthquake, despite the missed targets.

Ahead of the third anniversary of the disaster, Ozel last week carried out a week of visits to earthquake-hit provinces and “container cities”, with stops in Osmaniye and Gaziantep.

Magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 earthquakes struck 11 provinces. As well as the tens of thousands who were killed, more than 107,000 were injured and millions were left homeless as thousands of buildings collapsed.

Poor construction and failure to enforce building codes in the earthquake-prone areas – often, it is thought, because of corrupt payments made to officials who “turned a blind eye” to cheaper materials – have been blamed for the extent of the destruction.

Authorities initially estimated that post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction would require expenditure of $103bn. Three years on, official figures show that $91.5bn — equivalent to TRY3.6 trillion — has already been spent on rebuilding efforts, according to business daily Ekonomi.

The funds have been directed toward infrastructure, housing and commercial buildings, as well as emergency shelter, food, energy and social support.

The disaster-hit regions accounted for around nearly 10% of Turkey’s GDP and 15% of its agricultural output at the time of the quakes.