Municipalities in disaster-crisis management in Turkiye: Position and functions of Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality in Maraş earthquakes

Disasters are unpredictable events that we frequently encounter in today's world and that affect life negatively. Modern disaster management; will be done to prevent disasters or reduce their possible effects it consists of activities in the context of pre-disaster 'risk' and post-disaster 'crisis' management. Although both phases of the disaster management process are very important, especially the disaster-crisis phase; together with response, recovery and reconstruction activities, it constitutes the most critical phase in combating disasters. Since the actors who will take part in the process along with the activities are also very important in this process; It has become inevitable for municipalities that stand out in terms of proximity to services to play a decisive role in disaster management. The main purpose of this study is; To reveal the position and functions of municipalities/ metropolitan municipalities in the disaster-crisis management phase in Turkiye, to show their effects during the process and to offer some inferences/suggestions for the future. The focus and limitation of the thesis are provided within the framework of the position and functions of Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality in the 6 February 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes. The research was designed as a 'case study', one of the qualitative research methods, and the data was obtained within the scope of 'semi-structured interviews'. MAXQDA 24 (demo version) program was used to analyze the obtained data. In the findings of the research; It has been observed that municipalities/metropolitan municipalities play a direct role in disaster-risk and disaster-crisis management phases within the scope of their responsibilities included in various legal regulations, plans and strategies. Keywords: Disaster, Disaster-Crisis Management, Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality, Municipality, Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes