Every year on October 6, Turkmenistan celebrates Memorial Day (Turkm). Matam güni). This is the day of remembrance of the Turkmen people who died in the terrible Ashgabat earthquake of 1948 and in the Battle of Geoktepa (1880-1881).
Initially, this day was called Memorial Day and was dedicated specifically to the victims of the Ashgabat earthquake. On the night of October 5-6, 1948, at 1 hour 12 minutes, a colossal storm destroyed the beautiful and blooming city and its surroundings overnight to the ground. The exact number of victims is unknown even to this day. Various sources give a figure of 100 to 170 thousand people.
The epicenter of the earthquake, with a capacity of 9—10 on the Richter scale, was located near the village of Kara-Gaudan, approximately 25 kilometers southwest of the Turkmen capital. There, huge cracks formed on the surface of the earth.
Ashgabat, most of whose streets were lined with houses made of adobe bricks (a mixture of clay and straw dried in the sun), was destroyed instantly.
Earthquakes in the foothills of Kopet-Daga — are a common phenomenon; soil vibrations with a power of up to 4 points occur almost monthly. This time the tremors were so strong that the city had practically no chance. Not only adobe buildings collapsed, but also almost all permanent buildings. Literally several buildings survived, including the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the ancient mosque on Svoboda Avenue (now Magtymguly Avenue).
There is also no systematic description of the disaster. The author of one of the most complete and accurate descriptions of the tragedy —, Academician D. Nalivkin, who found himself in Ashgabat that terrible night. Below are fragments from his book «On the Ashgabat earthquake of 1948»:
«...When I came to my senses, I realized that I was still standing at the open window and holding the frame, and there was something incredible and impossible outside the window. Instead of a dark transparent starry night, there was an impenetrable milky white wall in front of me, and behind it terrible moans, screams, cries for help. In a few seconds, the entire old clay, adobe city was destroyed, and in place of the houses, a terrible white veil of dust flew into the air, hiding everything...
After the earthquake, the city was defenseless. The police disappeared. Those who stood at the posts rushed home to save their families. Those who slept in houses and barracks were crushed or injured. There was a military camp next to the building. There was nothing left of him either, and the number of victims was enormous...
We started calling on the phone. The phone is silent: the telephone exchange is not working. Telegraph destroyed. Railway station — is a pile of rubble, in some places even the rails are distorted. There is no airfield, and the take-off sites are broken by cracks. All central, district and local institutions were destroyed. The big city, the capital of the republic, turned out to be completely isolated from the outside world and completely disorganized...
Fortunately, the only thing that was almost not damaged was cars and trucks. They stood in the open air in light plywood garages and therefore remained intact. At first they served as the main type of communication. We drove the trucks out of the city, where the railway track and telegraph wires were intact, and used a suspended telephone to contact the nearest city.
A pilot arrived from the airfield in a truck and offered to fly to Krasnovodsk. Trucks tied up all parts of the city, delivered food, and took countless corpses to a fraternal cemetery outside the city. Without exaggeration, we can say that they were the basis of the entire life of the destroyed city. With the help of trucks, all the work of the organizational center, which spontaneously arose around the core of the Central Committee, was carried out. Passenger cars suffered more, and there were few of them...
Gradually, communication with the outside world was restored, trains with troops, medical detachments, and food moved to Ashgabat by rail, planes, and vehicles. The first of them were in the city already in the middle of the day. The striking isolation of the first hours was broken...».
The city was rebuilt. But the consequences of that terrible earthquake were felt almost until the end of the 1980s. For seismic safety reasons, multi-storey buildings (maximum 4-5 floors) were not built; so-called concrete safety belts were made in many houses. There were a lot of temporary shelters and temporary structures left in the city since 1948.
Since 1995, October 6 has been declared Remembrance Day in Turkmenistan. The corresponding Decree was signed by the President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov, who lost his mother and two brothers on the day of the earthquake. UNESCO recognized the Ashgabat earthquake as one of the most devastating disasters of the 20th century.
Since 2014, the date October 6 is also the Day of Remembrance of the Turkmen who died in the Battle of Geoktepa (1880-1881). By decree of the head of state, based on appeals from citizens, including war and labor veterans, memorable dates for the commemoration of those killed in the Battle of Geoktepa and the catastrophic Ashgabat earthquake of 1948 were combined, and this single memorable date was approved.
In Turkmenistan, October 6th is a non-working day. On this day, national flags are lowered throughout the country; in Ashgabat, people lay wreaths and bouquets of flowers at the majestic memorial to the victims of the disaster and monuments to fallen soldiers. Memorial lessons in schools, memorial meals, and mourning services are held in mosques and churches to coincide with the day of national mourning.