The state-run Anatolian news agency said the quake had a magnitude of 6.5 and was felt in several cities in the Tunceli region.
A woman died when her house collapsed on her in a village near Pulumur, while two children were hurt when they jumped from a school building in panic.
Pulumur mayor Mesut Coskun has appealed for tents to shelter people who were now too afraid to go back into their houses.
Two major earthquakes struck north-west Turkey in 1999 killing nearly 20,000 people.
Fault lines
The BBC's Jonny Dymond in Istanbul says every quake is a reminder to Turkey's people that they sit atop a network of seismological fault lines.
Provincial governor Mustafa Erkal said people had come running out onto the streets in the city of Tunceli and some buildings there had suffered cracks.
Turkish Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu said weather conditions and the rough terrain has been hindering attempts to contact residents of about 40 villages around Pulumur.
Tunceli province, about 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) east of the capital, Ankara, is a mountainous area but not heavily populated.
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