ANKARA

Türkiye's president pledged on Wednesday to rebuild the country's southern region, hit last month by powerful earthquakes that claimed the lives of at least 48,448 people.

"We have a promise to our nation to restore our cities, which were destroyed in the earthquake, within a year. We are about to finalize the damage assessment," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the Justice and Development (AK) Party's group meeting in parliament.

Türkiye is planning to build 319,000 houses in one year, Erdogan added.

"Our duty is to appease the hearts, to share the pain, to heal the wounds, to make up for the financial losses, especially the houses," he said.

On Feb. 6, the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes struck 11 provinces — Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Hatay, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.

More than 13.5 million people in Türkiye have been affected by the devastating quakes, as well as many others in northern Syria.