Earthquake In Turkey: Century of Devastation

March 1902: Turkish town of Tochangri is wiped out by an earthquake

April 1903: Earthquake in city of Van, Turkey, kills 860

December 1939: Quake in Erzincan, Turkey, measuring 7.9, kills 40,000

March 1953: North-west Turkey is hit by an earthquake measuring 7.2, leaving 1,200 dead

July 1963: Skopje, in Yugoslavia, is hit by a quake that kills 1,100

August 1966: 2,520 die when eastern Turkey is hit by a quake measuring 6.9

August 1968: An earthquake measuring 7.4 in Iran kills 11,600

September 1978: A quake measuring 7.7 in Iran kills 25,000

October 1983: About 1,300 are killed in an earthquake in eastern Turkey, measuring 6.9

June 1990: More than 37,000 people die in a tremor measuring 7.7 in the north-west Iranian province of Gilan

March 1992: Erzincan suffers another quake, measuring 6.7, killing 2,000

October 1995: South-west Turkey is hit by an earthquake measuring 6. Eighty-four people die

February 1997: A quake measuring 5.5 sweeps through north-west Iran, killing 1,000 people. Three months later a tremor measuring 7.1 kills 1,560 in eastern Iran

June 1998: South-east Turkey is shaken by an earthquake measuring 6.3, which claims 144 lives