Kadıoğlu, M., 2004: Disaster Mitigation and Preparedness Practices in Turkey, The 1st International Conference of Urban Disaster Reduction, Kobe-Japan. 1/8 DISASTER MITIGATION AND PREPAREDNESS PRACTICES IN TURKEY Mikdat KADIOĞLU Deputy Director, Istanbul Technical University Center of Excellence for Disaster Management, Turkey. Email: kadioglu@itu.edu.tr SUMMARY Actions recently taken to eliminate or reduce the long-term risk to human life and property from the impact of future hazards, and some of the recent activities that involves achieving readiness status among communities, individuals, government and businesses to effectively respond to and recover from a disaster in Turkey are categorized and summarized here. INTRODUCTION Through its history Turkey has experienced frequent natural disasters, which have resulted in unacceptable loss of life, injury and property damage. Earthquakes, landslides, floods, rock falls and snow avalanches are the leading natural hazards. The August 17, 1999 Marmara Earthquakes hit Turkey‟s industrial heartland at a critical economic time. We live, therefore, in a different world than we did before 1999. We are now more aware of our vulnerabilities and more understanding that we have a personal responsibility for the safety of our families, our neighbors and our nation. Pre-disaster measures such as mitigation and preparedness, therefore, came onto the agenda of the government and country, together with the 1999 Marmara earthquakes. In this paper, The Post-1999 (Awakening) Period disaster preparedness and mitigation practices in Turkey were chosen to be summarized in three categories; Turkish governmental organizations, Turkish non-governmental organizations, international organizations. For this purpose, a wide-ranging literature survey was made [1-5]. TURKISH GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS The 1999 earthquakes provoked major changes in policies and possibly fundamental changes in attitudes to disasters, prompted by the scale of human and physical destruction in 1999 and the realization of probability that Istanbul could be struck by a major earthquake in the next 30 years. Central Government: The enormity of the losses from 17 August 1999 Marmara Earthquake forced the government to send an urgent bill to the Grand National Assembly. The aim was to enable government to pass whatever legal instrument was