As the earliest institute in Turkey dedicated to locating, recording, and archiving earthquakes in the region, the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI) has a long history in seismic observation, which dates back to the installation of its first seismometers soon after the devastating Istanbul earthquake of 10 July 1894. For over a century, since the deployment of its first seismometer, the KOERI seismic network has grown steadily in time. In this article, we present the KOERI seismic network facilities as a data center for the seismological community, providing data and services through the European Integrated Data Archive (EIDA) and the Rapid Raw Strong-Motion (RRSM) database, both integrated in the Observatories and Research Facilities for European Seismology (ORFEUS). The objective of this article is to provide an overview of the KOERI seismic services within ORFEUS and to introduce some of the procedures that allow to check the health of the seismic network and the quality of the data recorded at KOERI seismic stations, which are shared through EIDA and RRSM.

A tsunami warning system providing services in the Eastern Mediterranean, Aegean, Marmara and Black Seas under the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)—Intergovernmental Coordination Group (ICG) for the Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System in the North-Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Connected Seas (NEAMTWS) framework was established in Turkey by the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI) (Özel et al., 2011). KOERI’s Regional Earthquake and Tsunami Monitoring Center (RETMC) was established on the foundations of the legacy KOERI National Earthquake Monitoring Center (NEMC) by adding observation, analysis and operational capability related to tsunami early warnings after an extensive preparatory period during 2009 and 2011. The center initiated its test-mode 7/24 operational status as a national tsunami warning center in 2011, and after a one year period it became operational as a candidate tsunami warning center for NEAMTWS on 1 July 2012, together with CENALT (Centre d’Alerte aux Tsunamis—France) and followed by the NOA (National Observatory of Athens—Greece) on 28 August 2012, INGV (Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia—Italy) on 1 October 2014 and IPMA (Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera—Portugal) on 1 February 2018, completing full coverage of the tsunami-prone regions monitored by NEAMTWS. In this paper, an overview of the progress and continuous improvement of KOERI’s tsunami early warning system will be presented, together with lessons learned from important tsunamigenic events, such as the 20 July 2017 Bodrum–Kos Mw 6.6 and 30 October 2020 Samos–Izmir Mw 6.9 earthquakes. Gaps preventing the completion of an effective tsunami warning cycle and areas for future improvement are also addressed.

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