The Turkish government prioritizes politics over politics in its response to the earthquake

In 1999, a massive earthquake hit the Kocaeli province near Istanbul. The government badly mismanaged the response. At first, the Minister of Health at the time, Osman Dormuş of the Nationalist Action Party, rejected many offers of foreign aid, saying, “I will not give them even one injured person.” [to care for]; I will not take their blood [donations]. An Israeli ship carrying badly needed supplies was held in customs for three days before being released. Officially, more than 17,000 people were killed in the earthquake, but the actual number was likely much higher. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then mayor of Istanbul, was among the highest Votes in holding officials accountable. The failed response to the 1999 earthquake was one of the factors that helped bring the AKP to power. It promised to do better. What it was. Leaving aside for a moment the unstable construction record and failure to inspect buildings, its response since the earthquake that hit February 6th was crumbling, hampered by incompetence, but also by the focus of its leadership on party politics at a moment of national tragedy and calamity.

As scholar Dilek Turkuzu pointed out, “Geography is a destiny, but neglect is a choice.” There was no averting tragedy. Earthquakes are common in Turkey, and the next “big” ones are always somewhere on the horizon, until the day they finally arrive. The earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria last week was shocking in its scale. But it was a danger that everyone knew was coming. The expectation was that the government would be ready this time.

In the critical first hours and days after last Monday’s earthquake, Erdogan’s government has been sluggish. In particular, it did not immediately mobilize the Army, not only to assist in direct rescue, but perhaps more importantly, to build or repair critical infrastructure needed for the rescue effort, things like field hospitals and damaged air corridors, which the Army can only address in hours, not days. . The civilian office responsible for emergency relief, the Turkish Presidency for Disaster and Emergency Management (AFAD), suffers from mismanagement, underfunding, and a lack of coordination. An AFAD official who was supposed to lead the rescue effort turned out to have a PhD and an extensive professional background in theology. Ankara has now come to terms with the scale of the tragedy. Unfortunately, its response continues to be undermined by its emphasis on political loyalty and its lack of tolerance for criticism.

In a televised address to the nation, Erdoğan declared a state of emergency and a week of national mourning, but also took time to complain about the critical news—which he called “misinformation”—and made clear he intended to raise voices critical of the account. In the hours following the speech, prosecutors began opening investigations, several were arrested, and the Turkish government’s habit of targeting journalists for coverage of the news continued in full swing. A French journalist with long experience in Turkey, Guillaume Perrier, was arrested at Istanbul airport and deported to France, with a five-year ban on his return to the country.

Even worse, Turkey choked off access to Twitter while rescue operations were still underway; Ostensibly, it did so to prevent “disinformation,” which in practice means images and stories that portray the government in an unfavorable light. Given how much civil society groups and survivors relied on Twitter to coordinate rescue and relief efforts, the decision to stifle access literally prioritized the government’s concerns about messaging over the lives of its citizens. Access was eventually restored after negotiations with Twitter, which promised to help curb “misinformation”. What this means in practice is unclear and merits attention from those concerned with Twitter’s evolving relationship with authoritarian regimes. What that means for Turkish citizens in the quake zone is another arbitrary barrier that must be overcome as they struggle to save their loved ones.

Finally, some government allies – and possibly government officials as well – are clearly concerned about the extent to which public support and fund-raising is directed at civic organizations such as Al Ahbab, rather than the government relief organization. This is despite the fact that, in general, the group’s leadership carefully managed to maintain good relations with the ruling party. On February 9, in the midst of the rescue effort, the organization’s website was subjected to a sustained cyberattack.

Watching government-friendly Turkish media means stepping into an alternative world. Often cited by international scholars prominently, the media tried to show, using the phrase “disaster of the century”, that the magnitude of the earthquake was so great that no steps could have been taken to prevent total devastation. Many have since complained about the misquote. Seismologist Judith Hubbard, for example, took to Twitter to note, “The idea that a [government] He may misuse my words to push a new misleading narrative [and] horrifying. The earthquake was inevitable. The scale of the disaster was not.” The state and pro-government media (that is, nearly 90% of the broadcast media) have a clear narrative: the destruction was the work of God, not the result of mismanagement, the state is doing everything that can be done, and any Someone who says otherwise is a liar or a traitor.In Diyarbakir, earthquake victims booed the visiting Minister of Justice, Bekir Bozdag; several were arrested under Article 216, which criminalizes expression aimed at “inciting people to hate.”

The stage of rescue operations is now approaching; The possibility of more survivors remaining is becoming increasingly grim. However, the challenges facing the Turkish government and its people remain enormous, with hundreds of thousands homeless, hungry, cold, and possibly tens of thousands still awaiting recovery and burial. In the first week since the earthquake struck, the Turkish government has prioritized public relations, sometimes at the expense of the lives of its citizens. It prioritized “narrative” over effective politics, and focused on stifling dissent. This was the pattern after the 2013 Gezi protests and the 2016 coup attempt. But those were purely political crises. To effectively address the current crisis, the Turkish government will have to put politics above politics — and its record in doing so has, thus far, been very poor indeed.

Howard Eisenstadt is a non-resident scholar in MEI’s Turkey Program and Associate Professor of History at St. Lawrence University, where he teaches courses on Middle Eastern history and politics.

Photo by Murat Saka/Dia Images via Getty Images

The Middle East Institute (MEI) is an independent, nonpartisan, not-for-profit educational organization. Do not engage in preaching and the opinions of its scholars are their own. MEI welcomes financial donations, but retains only editorial control of its work and its publications reflect only the opinions of the authors. For a list of MEI donors, please click here.

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