Lekkas for an earthquake in Turkey: There does not seem to be much momentum to worry the Greek area

The authorities remain in a state of alert Turkey after the 5.9 Richter earthquake in the northwest of the country that occurred today, Wednesday (23/11) in the early hours. THE president of OASP, Efthymios Lekkas, speaking to ERTY, he said that the Greeks should not worry as it does not seem to have much potential to affect our country.

“We are not concernedbut we follow the evolution of the phenomenon very closely. Exactly 23 years ago, on November 20, we had the big earthquake in the same area, which was the second earthquake after the August 17, 1999 earthquake in Nikomedia,” Mr. Lekkas emphasized.

“So after twenty-three years we have the repetition of the activity we had in ’99 in Nikomedia. Sure the earthquake didn’t happen in Nikomedia, it happened in Douzje, which is a city about 90 kilometers to the east of Nicomedia. The epicenter is placed on the Anatolian fault. It is a particularly sensitive area, which was completely destroyed in the 1999 earthquake, as was Adapazari, as well as Sakarya and Izmit, and then the reconstruction took place. Of course the damage with this one too earthquake are too manyhe added.

Regarding the extent to which Greece may be affected, Mr. Lekkas noted: “What is dominant for us here in Greece is that how the activity will develop in the Greek area, if it will excite but rifts. We have the precedent of 1999 when we had the 7.5 Richter earthquake in Izmit which basically traveled through the Anatolia fault and the Athens earthquake that we had 20 days later, but in this case the earthquake does not seem to have such momentum, he’s smaller, he’s not 7 he’s 6″ he said and added: “It doesn’t seem to have such great momentum as to worry the Greek area as well. But what we should say is that the Anatolian fault when it is activated, it is also activated in different sections. It is possible that it will be activated in the Sakaria section and in the Nikomedia section, but at the global level the concern exists for Istanbul, where according to research done by different groups from all over the world, a magnitude 7 earthquake is expected by 2024″ concluded the president of the OASP.