The RESMAR Story: A Business Continuity Vision from Marmara to Türkiye

“Our priority is the Marmara Region. Our target is all of Türkiye.”

Why RESMAR?

The Marmara Region is the heartland of Türkiye’s industrial production and exports. It is also one of the country’s highest earthquake-risk areas. When production stops in an organised industrial zone (OIZ), the consequences reach far beyond the site itself: supply chains, employment and the regional economy are all affected. The earthquakes of 6 February 2023 demonstrated once again that the speed of post-disaster recovery depends directly on the quality of pre-disaster preparedness.

RESMAR was born from exactly this insight. Initiated by the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) and financed under the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism, the project set out to move industrial infrastructure from asking “what will we do if a disaster happens?” to asking “how will production continue when it does?” The instrument chosen for that shift was a business continuity management approach grounded in international standards.

The project rested on three pillars: carrying out business impact analyses and risk assessments tailored to individual OIZs; preparing business continuity plans on that basis and testing them in the field; and embedding the resulting knowledge through training, guidance documents and institutional partnerships.

The Story, Step by Step

The starting point: 10 October 2024, İstanbul

The RESMAR story began with the project’s opening meeting, held in İstanbul on 10 October 2024. The meeting at the Elite World İstanbul Florya Hotel brought together 168 representatives from the public and private sectors, including the Directorate General for Industrial Zones of the Ministry of Industry and Technology, the Organised Industrial Zones Supreme Organisation (OSBÜK), the Provincial AFAD Directorates and Provincial Directorates of Industry and Technology across the Marmara Region, and the organised industrial zones themselves.

Opening remarks were delivered by Gökhan Yılmaz, Head of AFAD’s Marmara Disaster Risk Reduction Department; Murat Açıkgöz, Head of Department at the Directorate General for Industrial Zones of the Ministry of Industry and Technology; and Abdulkadir Tezcan, Head of AFAD’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Prevention Department. 

Into the field: May – July 2025

The project team began not at a desk but on site. On 12 May 2025 a hybrid information and evaluation meeting with Tuzla Chemical Industrialists OIZ (KOIZ) prepared the ground for the first study visit. Attended by Gökhan Yılmaz, then Head of AFAD’s Marmara Disaster Risk Reduction Department, and Prof. Dr. Haluk Özener, İstanbul Provincial AFAD Director, the meeting reviewed both the legal framework and examples of good practice.

Two further steps followed before the month was out. On 22 May, at the OIZ Regional Directors’ Consultation Meeting hosted by OSBÜK in Antalya, RESMAR was introduced to OIZ managers from across Türkiye. On 28–29 May the first two-day site visit took place at Tuzla Chemical Industrialists OIZ, where OIZ management, the Ministry of Industry and Technology, OSBÜK, chambers of industry and commerce and technical experts jointly assessed business continuity, infrastructure capacity, disaster management and risk analysis.

The new RESMAR logo, launched on 2 July 2025, gave the project its visual identity. On 25 July an online information meeting for the regional directors of the designated Marmara OIZs widened the project network.

The 1st Steering Committee Meeting on 20 August gave the project a formal governance framework. The presence of managers and representatives from AFAD, the Ministry of Industry and Technology, OSBÜK and the Turkish Accreditation Agency (TÜRKAK) underlined that business continuity is a regulatory agenda as much as a technical one. Days later, on 26 August, the official project website resmar.afad.gov.tr went live, opening all outputs to the public.

In the autumn the focus turned to exercise preparation. On 30 September – 1 October 2025 a preparatory meeting and fieldwork were held in İstanbul: technical assessments at the exercise site on day one, and a briefing for OIZ representatives at the İstanbul Provincial AFAD Directorate on day two. On 8 October the project turned to the public sector, with a meeting on the “Preparation and Dissemination of Business Continuity Plans” attended by representatives of the Ministries of Health, Energy and Natural Resources, Transport and Infrastructure, Industry and Technology, and Trade. 

In the same period the project reached beyond Marmara. The business continuity information meeting held in İzmir on 13 March 2026 was the first concrete demonstration that the Marmara experience could be transferred to other regions.

The closing: 1–2 July 2026, İstanbul

The RESMAR Project Closing Meeting was held on 1–2 July 2026 at the Hilton Bomonti Hotel in İstanbul under the theme “A Business Continuity Vision from Marmara to Türkiye”, bringing together public institutions, international organisations, organised industrial zones, academia, the private sector and project partners.

Day one opened with “RESMAR from Yesterday to Today”, presented by Mehmet Fatih Şen, Head of AFAD’s Technological Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group. In the session “The Resilient Industry of the Future: OIZ Experiences – I”, moderated by engineer Esen Demirkol Kılıç, Ayla Dev (İstanbul Anadolu Yakası OIZ), Kemal Baltepe (Tuzla KOIZ), Serhat Şengül (Bursa Demirtaş OIZ) and Yıldıray Demirkıran (Birlik OIZ) shared their field experience.

Official opening remarks were delivered by Abdulkadir Tezcan, Head of AFAD’s Marmara Disaster Risk Reduction Department; Prof. Dr. Orhan Tatar, AFAD Director General for Earthquake and Risk Reduction; Stephen Cahill, WFP Representative and Country Director for Türkiye; Maria Luisa Wyganowski, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Türkiye; and Hamza Taşdelen, AFAD Deputy President.

Day two began with “From 6 February to the Future: Lessons in Business Continuity and Resilience”, presented by Hüseyin Doğru, Chair of the Board of MOBSAN. The panel “Global Partnerships for Resilience”, moderated by EU Expert Duygu Yardımcı of the Directorate for EU Affairs, brought together Akif Türkel (Programme Manager, EU Delegation to Türkiye), David Baker (Economic Affairs Officer, UNDRR), Ege Seçkin (Emergency Preparedness and Response Adviser, WFP) and K. Deniz Çiftçi (Project Coordinator, UNDP).

Following a presentation by Balkır Demirkan, Secretary General of DASK, on the role of insurance systems in disaster risk management, the final session — “A Public Sector Perspective on the Road to a Resilient Türkiye”, moderated by Gökhan Yılmaz of the Ministry of Health — gathered department heads from the Ministries of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change; Agriculture and Forestry; Industry and Technology; Energy and Natural Resources; and Trade. The meeting closed with remarks by Abdulkadir Tezcan.

Tangible Results

• More than 1,200 stakeholders trained in business continuity and disaster risk reduction.
• Business impact analyses, risk assessments and business continuity plans prepared and field-tested for pilot organised industrial zones in the Marmara Region.
• The “OIZ Business Continuity Management System Set-up and Implementation Guide” and the “Legislation and Good Practices Report” published, creating a model applicable across Türkiye.
• A durable institutional partnership established between AFAD, the Ministry of Industry and Technology, OSBÜK and TÜRKAK.
• Good practice from EU Member States transferred to the Turkish context through technical visits to the Netherlands and Spain.
• All guides, reports and training materials made publicly available via resmar.afad.gov.tr.
• €654,288.59 of EU support converted directly into preparedness capacity for industrial infrastructure.

What Comes Next

Two sentences the RESMAR team repeats often also sum up the project’s future: “Our priority is Marmara. Our target is all of Türkiye.” Resilience is not a one-off project but a long-term commitment. The two questions raised at the closing meeting — how these solutions can be scaled across Türkiye and beyond, and how public-private collaboration in disaster risk reduction can be deepened — define the agenda the project leaves behind. The guide and implementation experience developed in Marmara offer a ready starting point for other industrial regions in Türkiye. Cooperation between the EU and Türkiye in civil protection and solidarity will continue.