Turkey arrests construction contractors as the earthquake death toll exceeds 33,000

ANtakya, Turkey (AP) — Turkish justice officials have targeted more than 130 people allegedly involved in shoddy and illegal construction methods, as rescuers pull out more survivors, including a pregnant woman and two young children, six days after a pair of earthquakes collapsed thousands of buildings. .

The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria nine hours apart on Feb. 6 rose to 33,179 on Sunday and is sure to continue to rise as search teams discover more bodies under the rubble.

As desperation looms over the slow, agonizing rescue efforts, focus has shifted to blaming the disaster on an earthquake-prone region that includes a region of Syria already reeling from years of civil war.

Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Sunday that about 131 people are under investigation for their alleged responsibility in the construction of buildings that failed to withstand earthquakes. While the earthquakes were strong, victims, experts and people across Turkey blame faulty construction for compounding the devastation.

Turkey’s building codes comply with current earthquake engineering standards, at least on paper, but they are rarely enforced, which explains why thousands of buildings have fallen or smashed onto the people inside.

Among those facing scrutiny were two other people who were arrested in Gaziantep province, the state-run Anadolu Agency said, on suspicion of cutting columns to make extra space in a building that collapsed due to earthquakes.

The Justice Ministry said three people were in pre-trial detention, seven were detained and seven others were prevented from leaving Turkey.

Authorities at Istanbul Airport on Sunday arrested contractors accused of destroying several buildings in Adiyaman, the Dubai Health Authority’s private news agency and other media reported. The two were reportedly on their way to Georgia.

Yavuz Karakos, one of the detained contractors, told reporters: “My conscience is clear. I built 44 buildings. Four of them have been demolished.” He was quoted as saying by the Dubai Health Authority.

Rescuers, including crews from other countries, continued to investigate the ruins in hopes of finding additional survivors who could overcome the long, increasingly odds. Thermal cameras were used to probe the piles of concrete and metal, while rescuers demanded silence so they could hear the voices of those trapped.

The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) reported that a pregnant woman was rescued, Sunday, in the hard-hit Turkish province of Hatay, 157 hours after the first earthquake.

HaberTurk TV broadcasted the live rescue of a 6-year-old boy who was removed from the wreckage of his home in Adiyaman. The child was wrapped in a blanket and put in an ambulance. The exhausted rescuer removed his surgical mask and took a deep breath as a group of women could be heard crying with joy.

Turkey’s Minister of Health, Fahrettin Koca, released a video of a rescued young girl wearing a dark blue jacket. “Good news at 150 hours. She was rescued a short time ago by crews. There is always hope!” he tweeted.

Rescue workers pulled out a man in Antakya, hours after hearing voices from under the rubble. Workers said the man, who appeared to be in his late 20s or 30s, was one of nine still trapped in the building. But when asked if he knew of any other survivors, he said he had not heard any sounds in three days.

The man waved his hand feebly as he passed his hand to his hand on the stretcher as the workers clapped and chanted, “Allahu Akbar!”

The dpa news agency reports that a team of German and Turkish aid workers has rescued an 88-year-old woman from the rubble in Kerekhan. The efforts of the Italian and Turkish rescue team also paid off when they removed a 35-year-old man from the rubble in the hard-hit city of Antakya. Private NTV reported that he appeared unscathed and was taken on a stretcher to an ambulance.

The state-run Anadolu Agency reported that during the night a child was released in the town of Nizip in Gaziantep, while a 32-year-old woman was rescued from the rubble of an eight-storey building in the city of Antakya. The woman asked for tea as soon as she walked out, according to NTV.

NTV reports that efforts are underway in Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter of the first quake, to reach a survivor who was discovered by sniffer dogs under a seven-storey building.

However, those who were found alive remained a rare exception.

A large temporary cemetery was under construction on the outskirts of Antakya on Saturday. Bulldozers and bulldozers dug holes in the field as trucks and ambulances laden with black body bags arrived continuously. Hundreds of graves, spaced no more than three feet (meters) apart, are marked with simple planks of wood set vertically in the ground.

The Hatay Transportation Ministry announced the reopening of Hatay Airport, where the runway was damaged, on Sunday. That should help somewhat to get help in the area.

The picture of the ordeal across the border in Syria was less clear

The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, who visited the Turkish-Syrian border on Sunday, said in a statement that the Syrians were left “searching for international help that has yet to arrive.”

We have so far failed the people of northwest Syria. They feel right to be abandoned, he said, adding, “My duty and our obligation is to correct this failure as quickly as possible.”

The first UN convoy was to arrive in northwest Syria from Turkey on Thursday, three days after the earthquake.

Before that, it was nothing but a steady stream of bodies of earthquake victims crossing the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border: Syrian refugees who fled the war in their country and settled in Turkey but perished in the disaster returning home. for burial.

Political differences have also hampered aid convoys sent from areas of northeastern Syria controlled by US-backed Kurdish groups to those controlled by the Syrian government and Turkish-backed fighters who have fought with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces over the years.

The death toll from the earthquake in the rebel-held area of ​​northwest Syria has reached 2,166, according to the rescue group the White Helmets. The total death toll in Syria reached 3,553 on Saturday, although the 1,387 deaths reported in government-held parts of the country had not been updated for days. Turkey’s death toll was updated to 29,605 on Sunday afternoon.

On Saturday, the Turkish Ministry of Justice announced plans to establish earthquake investigation offices. The offices aim to identify contractors and others responsible for construction work, gather evidence, direct experts including architects, geologists and engineers, and verify building permits and occupation permits.

Authorities detained a building contractor on Friday at Istanbul airport before he could board a flight out of the country. He built a luxurious 12-storey building called Ronesans Rezidans in the historical city of Antakya, in Hatay Province. When it fell, it left countless dead. He was officially arrested Saturday.

In a leaked affidavit published by Anadolu Agency, the man said the building followed regulations and that he did not know why the building could not withstand earthquakes. His lawyer indicated that the public was looking for a scapegoat.

The arrests can help direct public anger toward builders and contractors, diverting attention from local and state officials who have allowed seemingly substandard buildings to move forward. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, already burdened by economic stagnation and high inflation, faces parliamentary and presidential elections in May.

The survivors, many of whom have lost loved ones, have turned their frustration and anger on the authorities as well. Rescue teams were overwhelmed by the widespread destruction affecting roads and airports, making the race against time even more difficult.

Erdogan admitted earlier in the week that the initial response had been hampered by the extensive damage. He said the worst affected area is 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter and home to 13.5 million people in Turkey. During a tour of the quake-hit cities on Saturday, Erdogan said that a disaster of this scale is rare, referring to it as the “disaster of the century” in multiple speeches.

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Belgensoy reported from Istanbul. Suzanne Fraser in Ankara, Abby Sewell in Beirut, and Kirsten Grechber in Berlin contributed to this report.

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Follow AP earthquake coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/earthquakes

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