Southeast Turkey (officially the Republic of Türkiye) and northwest Syria were ravaged by a strong 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck on February 6, 2023, along with a number of other powerful earthquakes and waves. The number of fatalities has surpassed 47,000 and is still rising. An extra 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey two weeks later, on February 20, 2023, resulting in additional casualties and damage.

In a region already rocked by unrest brought on by the ongoing refugee crisis and the nearly 12-year war in Syria, tens of thousands have been wounded and hundreds of thousands have been evacuated. Teams of search and rescue personnel from all over the globe are now primarily focusing on recovery efforts after searching frantically for additional lives for almost two weeks. According to reports, there are at least 47,000 structures and over 87,000 casualties.

Due to its position at the confluence of two significant tectonic plates, the African Plate and the Eurasian Plate, Turkey is one of the most earthquake-prone nations in the entire globe. Extreme pressure generated by the shift of these plates is discharged as earthquakes.Because of this Turkey has had a history of being hit by many of the biggest earthquakes including the one in July 1999 Istanbul, Turkey's biggest metropolis, was shaken for 45 seconds by a strong magnitude 7.6 earthquake that struck Marmara, a heavily populated area to the south of Istanbul. The official mortality toll reached 17,500 in a matter of days.