ANKARA, July 19. /TASS/. The Turkish authorities plan to start preparing the city of Istanbul for the potentially devastating earthquake that seismologists have recently warned about, Turkish Environment and Urbanization Minister Mehmet Ozhaseki said at a press conference on Wednesday.

"We held a meeting with [Istanbul Mayor] Ekrem [Imamoglu] and the heads of the [city’s municipal] districts to discuss a potential earthquake hitting Istanbul, and we reached a basic agreement. We will get down to work next week," he said.

On July 12, Turkish seismologist Naci Gorur predicted tremors with magnitudes ranging between 7.2 and 7.6 in the Sea of Marmara area surrounding the megalopolis of 17 million inhabitants. Seismologists have repeatedly warned about the possibility of a powerful earthquake near Istanbul, which is located at the junction of the Anatolian and Eurasian tectonic plates. Researchers believe that such tremors could cause about 90,000 buildings to collapse simultaneously, while another 260,000 would incur damage, becoming uninhabitable, and 4.5 million city residents would need temporary accommodations.

After earthquakes hit southeastern Turkey in February, killing over 50,000 people, local authorities began talking about the need to relocate the residents of at least 1.5 million buildings in Istanbul. Plans call for establishing satellite towns in the European and Asian parts of the city, each of which will be designed to accommodate 500,000 residents.

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake rocked the Istanbul area in August 1999. The epicenter was in the city of Izmit, 80 kilometers from Istanbul. The quake caused a tsunami in the Sea of Marmara. According to official data, the disaster claimed the lives of 17,200 people, while unofficial data says that 40,000 people were killed and another 45,000 suffered injuries.