An anecdote: 2 days ago there was a short and strong earthquake in Kağıthane, Istanbul, in an area that is completely rocky and has never experienced an earthquake before. Seconds before the earthquake, a strange and eerie explosion was heard throughout Istanbul.
Later tonight (04:17 pm), an earthquake occurred in Kahramanmaras, 7000 meters underground, with an acceleration of 664 Gal and a magnitude of 7.7 on the Rihter scale. The earthquake was felt in more than 7 countries. A few hours ago, at noon time, a second fault line ruptured in the same region. The magnitude of the second earthquake was 7.6. There have been at least 5 more tremors with magnitude greater than 6 since the morning hours in the region.
In conspiracy theorist circles, this coincidence naturally brought to mind the US's 2002 millennium challange exercise. The scope of this exercise was a 96-hour US intervention in a fictitious country separating two continents and plagued by minority problems, in which the government lost control after an earthquake. Many NATO member states participated in this exercise as observers, but Turkiye was carefully excluded. With the exception of Reuters and one news agency, what was generally reported about this exercise was the waste of resources and possible money leakage under this program. What was unusual, however, was the scope of the exercise. I am not associating today's earthquake with 2002, but it is indeed a strange coincidence that such an imaginary scenario was played out in 2002.
Again, about 10 days ago, the US ambassador announced the suspension and temprorary closure of the activities of the Istanbul consulate, without disclosing the source and without sharing the intelligence they had. Not only that, 8 other countries have been advised to do so and even threatened, according to a diplomat from one of these countries. In the end, there was no terrorist attack, but there was the most severe earthquake in the history of the republic. In fact, there is not a single earthquake, but an earthquake storm in the region since night hours. Many extraordinary events of an unprecedented nature have taken place one after the other.
