Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said that six earthquakes with magnitudes above 6 had hit the country so far early Monday.
Soylu added that the earthquakes had affected several provinces including Gaziantep, Osmaniye, Malatya, Adıyaman, Adana, Diyarbakır, Kilis, and Şanlıurfa.
"Our rescue teams have been dispatched to the region. Our cargo planes were prepared and shipped to the region."
He noted that the country issued a level-4 alarm, which includes a call for international aid.
Several people have been killed and 34 buildings have been destroyed in southern Osmaniye province.
Multiple people were killed and dozens injured and six buildings were destroyed in Diyarbakır province while a great number of people died in Şanlıurfa province.
In Malatya province, dozens of people were killed, hundreds of others got injured and 140 buildings were destroyed.
Gaziantep Governor Davut Gül noted that 531 buildings collapsed throughout the city after the quake.
AFAD published a statement saying: "Following a discussion with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, international assistance was called for the search and rescue through the ERCC (Emergency Response Coordination Centre).
Türkiye is in one of the world's most active earthquake zones.
Düzce was one of the regions hit by a 7.4-magnitude earthquake in 1999 -- the worst to hit Türkiye in decades.
Experts have long warned a large quake could devastate Istanbul, which has allowed widespread building without safety precautions.
A magnitude-6.8 quake hit Elazığ in January 2020, killing more than 40 people.
And in October that year, a magnitude-7.0 quake hit the Aegean Sea, killing 114 people and wounding more than 1,000.
The earthquake levelled dozens of buildings across major cities of southern Türkiye as well as neighbouring Syria, a country gripped by more than a decade of violence that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions of people.
Images on Turkish television and social media showed rescuers digging through the rubble of levelled buildings in the city of Kahramanmaras and neighbouring Gaziantep.
A fire lit up the night sky in one image from Kahramanmaraş, although its origin remained unclear.
NTV television said buildings also crumbled in the cities of Adıyaman, Malatya and Diyarbakır.
CNN Turk television said the quake was also felt across parts of central Türkiye and the capital Ankara.
