ANKARA 

Containers for quake victims in Türkiye from Qatar and other countries are on their way, the Turkish transport and infrastructure minister said Friday. 

Adil Karaismailoglu said at a news conference in Adiyaman province that containers will arrive at Turkish ports and will be distributed to provinces affected by the quakes.

"We are working on the transfer of our citizens living in tent cities to container cities," he said.

The first container ships, which were loaded from Qatar and set off Feb. 14, are expected to arrive at the Iskenderun Port on March 3 or 4, according to the ministry’s data.

The five ships that set off gradually are carrying 1,388 living containers and 627 pallets of humanitarian aid.

Regarding permanent house projects, t Karaismailoglu said works on housing areas and reconstruction of the city will be carried out together and the most important issue on the agenda is beginning to build new houses, he said.

The 7.7- and 7.6-magnitude quakes, which were centered in Türkiye's southern Kahramanmaras province, struck 10 other Turkish provinces -- Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Adana, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa and Elazig. About 13.5 million people have been affected.  

*Writing by Gokhan Ergocun from Istanbul