As Turks look at collapsed buildings, anger at government grows
| ISTANBUL
With hopes scant of pulling many more survivors from the rubble of last week鈥檚 devastating earthquake, Turkish citizens are expressing growing anger and resentment toward the government, demanding accountability for shoddy construction practices they say cost thousands of lives and for its delayed response to the disaster.
Relief efforts pivoted urgently over the weekend to feeding and housing survivors on both sides of the Turkey-Syria border even as the death toll climbed steadily, passing 36,000聽on Monday.聽The聽7.8 magnitude quake Feb. 6 and strong aftershocks that followed constituted the deadliest natural disaster in the region in 80 years.
In Turkey, criticism聽of President Recep Tayyip聽Erdo臒an聽and his ruling Justice and Development Party聽mounted. Critics said warnings聽about the quake-prone area were ignored, allowing a rush of construction by聽companies聽that, to maximize profits, dodged聽building codes that could have prevented聽the sudden聽collapse of entire buildings.
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onPresident Erdo臒an won broad support in Turkey for his building and modernization projects. But critics of the government say sensible precautions were ignored as developers rushed to build in a quake-prone zone.
As of Monday, Turkish authorities said they had arrested 12 property developers, issued arrest warrants for 114 people, and launched 134 investigations, but government critics were insistent that more needed to be done to curb corruption, mismanagement, and impunity.
鈥淏uildings should not have collapsed like that. And when they did, why wasn鈥檛 the army called on and helicopters used immediately to get rescue workers to save those under the collapsed buildings?鈥� asks Guzide Diker, an activist whose family lost their homes in the quake in Malatya.
Ms. Diker,聽who says her brothers and parents are now all displaced by the quake,聽spent Monday looking for shelter for other homeless survivors in Diyarbakir.
Mr.聽Erdo臒an, who faces a serious electoral challenge in May, accuses his critics of using a historic disaster to their political advantage. The president did eventually send the military to help in the quake zone and admitted to government shortcomings, but he also said last week at one of the impacted sites he visited that fate is to blame: 鈥淚t鈥檚 part of destiny鈥檚 plan.鈥�
His political opponents, however, are聽demanding to know where聽taxes聽collected聽over the last two decades聽in the name of earthquake聽preparedness have聽been spent.
Mr. Erdo臒an, who has ruled Turkey since 2002,聽earned respect and popularity聽for modernization and building projects. But what are now perceived as shortcuts sacrificing safety may cost him the presidency.
Urban planning
Earthquake scientists say if the government had implemented retrofitting laws and zoning codes with聽the聽money collected from earmarked taxes, it could have saved many more lives. Thousands of new and old buildings toppled in seconds, the majority聽of which聽were built before 2001 when new codes were introduced, says Gencay Serter, head of the board of聽the national Chamber of Urban Planners.
鈥淥ur expertise tells us that certainly buildings should have been more resistant as the site is known to be an earthquake-prone zone. Therefore, we are confident to say that should anti-seismic building regulations be respected, the inhabitants would have had a higher chance of safety,鈥� Mr. Serter writes in an email.
Mr. Serter says older buildings that were at risk should have been retrofitted and new buildings constructed to code, but he says the government failed on all fronts.
鈥淪cience didn鈥檛 shape our cities. The policy of capitalism did,鈥� says Pelin Pinar Giritlio臒lu, also an urban planner with the Chamber, and a professor of public administration and urbanization at Istanbul University.
Dr. Giritlio臒lu says she wasn鈥檛 shocked to see the massive destruction of this latest quake because many predictions had been made, but she鈥檚 upset to see the neglect and disregard for loss of life.
She says earthquake聽protections聽include empty spaces where people can escape to, like parks, but instead of creating green spaces, more buildings were erected. Turkey has laws, like the Urban Transformation Action rolled out in 2019, to restore and demolish buildings at high risk, but there was no will to enforce those laws,聽she says.
Dr. Giritlio臒lu聽says the government sought profits through mega projects. Airports were built on fault lines against all advice, as in Hatay, where aid was delayed because the airport was unusable. It reportedly reopened on Monday.
Responding to the critics, officials say聽rapid urbanization is a global phenomenon that the government could not stop,聽and the construction met growing needs for housing and transportation.
According to videos and witness accounts, bulldozers have demolished part of a government building in Hatay where evidence of shoddy construction may have been found in documents and collected from the wreckage. Independent lawyers are guarding whatever proof is left in the building.
鈥淚t鈥檚 difficult to tell if all the buildings were built in violation of codes. Once on-site examinations are made, then we can be more specific and accurate about the information,鈥� she says.
Short-term needs vs. long-term safety
Serving short-term population demands has outweighed safety procedures, experts say, and that has to change.
To override earthquake prevention codes, ordinances and laws known as zoning amnesties are passed. The amnesties, which began in 1948, gave quick licenses to construction companies that could ignore safety codes.
After the 1999 earthquake near Istanbul that took more than 17,000 lives, measures were taken to stop the amnesties. Yet in 2018, the construction industry paid for a sweeping amnesty to build with impunity, urban planners say.
Even if earthquake prevention laws were followed in giving building licenses, developers cut corners and costs during actual building, experts say, adding that inspections were shady.
Meanwhile, foreign real estate investors were being lured in with shiny building exteriors and glamorous compounds with swimming pools and gyms. About 1,000 people lived in R枚nesans Residence, advertised as 鈥渁 frame from heaven鈥� in Hatay, and few survived. Mehmet Ya艧ar Co艧kun, the developer, is among the contractors who have been arrested, though he told reporters that he鈥檚 innocent of wrongdoing.
After the 1999 quake, some 88 billion Turkish liras, about $4.6 billion, was collected through phone and Internet usage and vehicle registration that was targeted for earthquake mitigation measures. But audit reports from the Istanbul Chamber of Accountants say it鈥檚 impossible to track how the funds were spent.
Popular anger makes Erdo臒an vulnerable
Atila Yesilada, a Turkish economist and financial analyst with Global Source Partners, who is a staunch Erdo臒an critic with a Youtube channel called Real Turkey, says the president 鈥渢reats public money like his private purse.鈥�
Mr. Yesilada says the money ended up in a general fund that gets diluted without any specifics of how these funds are spent. Oversight and monitoring committees in parliament have been stripped of their power over the years, because they are members of opposition parties.
The ruling party and its allies 鈥渞eject opposition proposals so the opposition looks powerless,鈥� Mr. Yesilada says. 鈥淥nce a fiscal year is over, the government is mandated to show how they spent the budget, but they don鈥檛 do it.鈥�
Mr. Yesilada says this disaster has made Mr. Erdo臒an very vulnerable, even to what he says is a flawed opposition.
鈥淓ven if he performs miracles, people are angry and they are looking to find a scapegoat, and that鈥檚 Mr. Erdo臒an,鈥� he says.
But the president still has a strong base of supporters.
Nuran Durdagi, an Istanbul resident working in a shopping mall, has voted for Mr. Erdo臒an in every election and says she will do so in the next one.
鈥淗e鈥檚 a very good person. Our government is very strong, thank God. This disaster came from God, there鈥檚 nothing anyone could have done. Hopefully, everyone will have a house in a year,鈥� Ms. Durdagi says.
