Crisis Management of 23 Oct 2011 Van Earthquake in Turkey: A Case Study

The 23 October 2011 Van Province (the cities of Van and Ercis) in southeast of Turkey, about 150 km away from the Iranian borderline (West Azerbaijan Province) with a magnitude of 7.2 caused 644 deaths and ruined buildings in cities of Van and Ercis in Van Province. This case study is based on the reports of different organizations during and after the Van earthquake of 23 November 2011. The disaster management and search and rescue operations during and after the event is considered and the crisis management is studied during the 17 days after the earthquake. The Study of Van earthquake may be noteworthy for Iran because of the similarities in culture and climate and geographical and seismological situations in NW Iran and eastern Turkey.