In Turkey, an average of 24 people die in snow avalanches every year, mainly in the eastern part of Anatolia and in the eastern Black Sea region, where high-mountain ranges are close to the sea. The proportion of people killed in buildings is very high (87 %), especially in comparison to other European countries and North America. In this paper we discuss avalanche occurrence, the climatic situation and historical avalanche events in Turkey; in addition, we identify bottlenecks and suggest solutions to tackle avalanche problems. Furthermore, we have applied the numerical avalanche simulation software RAMMS (rapid mass movements simulation) combined with a (digital elevation model) DEM-based potential release zone identification algorithm to analyze the catastrophic avalanche events in the villages of Üzengili (Bayburt province) in 1993 and Yaylaönü (Trabzon province) in 1981. The results demonstrate the value of such an approach for regions with poor avalanche databases, enabling the calculation of different scenarios and the estimation of run-out distances, impact pressure and flow height.