Turkiye: Immediate liquidity is among top priorities following major disasters

Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Mar 2026

The Kahramanmaras earthquake, which occurred on 6 February 2023, has highlighted the importance of urgent cash needs, according to the Secretary General of the Turkish Disaster Insurance Institution (DASK), Mr Balkir Demirkan.

“It was seen that people’s immediate primary need was not home repairs, but cash to sustain their lives,” he told Insurance Gazette, saying that the government clearly understands this. “Therefore, ‘emergency needs coverage’ was added to DASK’s insurance policies.”

Offering emergency needs insurance is a new practice, Mr Demirkan said, adding, “There are almost no examples of it in the world. It exists as parametric payments by private insurance pools. This kind of mechanism is not common in state protection pools. Private insurance companies make cash payments; but this is very limited in state protection.” M

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