Earthquakes and disaster menagement in Ottoman Turkey (1900-1923)

Natural disasters, especially earthquakes, have been one of the most influential factors on society since the earliest periods of history. There were many earthquakes between 1900 and 1923, covering the last quarter of the Ottoman Empire and the time period of this study, some of which caused great damage and loss of life. In the twenty-three years between the aforementioned dates, it has been determined in the light of the archive documents and the data obtained from the newspapers that 639 earthquakes occurred, 82 of which caused damage and some of them caused significant loss of life. Disasters such as 1901 Erzurum, 1902 Çankırı, 1903 Malazgirt, 1907 Bitlis, 1909 İzmir-Koyulhisar, 1912 Mürefte, 1914 Isparta-Burdur and 1919 Soma earthquakes have caused great destruction, damage, loss of life and hundreds, even thousands of people, suffering various distresses caused. After such disasters, the Ottoman Government and local administrators, in the context of disaster management, were of great importance to provide the nutrition and shelter needs of the earthquake victims and to build their permanent residences. Aid campaigns were also organized to cover some of the costs of these works, which require large expenditures. Briefly, in this study, it has been tried to determine the amount of loss of life and property in earthquakes, the socio-economic effects of earthquakes on the state and society, and the disaster management of central and local governments in earthquakes.