ISTANBUL — The death toll continues to rise from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake and powerful aftershocks that hit southern Turkey and northern Syria. As Turkey's leaders promise a swift start to reconstruction efforts in the earthquake zone, attention is also turning to Istanbul — and whether Turkey's largest city has done what it can to be ready for a major quake.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long spoken of the need to be ready for natural disasters. A year after an earthquake hit Izmir and surrounding areas in 2020, Erdogan reportedly boasted that the government had been with the people "from the very first minute."
