19 years have passed since the Marmara Earthquake, which caused huge loss of life and property, resulting in the death of 18 thousand 373 people, injured 40 thousand people, and demolished nearly 380 thousand residences and offices.

According to EM-DAT, the international disasters database, Marmara Earthquake is the 6th biggest earthquake that occurred in between 1900 and 2009, with an economic loss of 20 billion USD. Uğur Gülen, CEO of Aksigorta, gave a statement on the occasion of its 19th anniversary:

“Since the rate of insurance was really low in 1999, only 5 percent of the economic loss of 20 billion USD could be covered by the insurance market. There were only 500 thousand residences that had the protection of earthquake insurance. Today, one of every two residences are protected by DASK (Turkish Catastrophic Insurance Pool.) Today, the pool has the ability to pay 17 billion TL in a single event.”

Compulsory earthquake insurance is not enough
Uğur Gülen stated that a potential earthquake in Istanbul is estimated to cause an economic loss of approximately 150 billion USD, and that only 15 billion USD of that loss could be covered by the insurance market. He added that compulsory earthquake insurance only covered for the basic structure of buildings, not the value of the land and properties inside. According to Gülen, regardless of the actual value of the residence, the highest amount of coverage is 190 thousand TL.

“If the actual value of the property exceeds the coverage provided by DASK, policyholders need to close the gap with an additional coverage by buying homeowner’s insurance. After an earthquake, rebuilding the residences and buildings is not the only requirement; we have to make sure that there is hope for the future. It is crucial to ensure that victims can continue with their lives by covering for the loss of business or addressing emergency basic requirements. It is only possible through additional coverages that will support compulsory earthquake policies.”