Turkey earthquake: How do people react to the country’s response? | Turkey and Syria earthquake news

Osmaniye and Kemranmaras, Turkey – When Halil Ibrahim Çalışkan looks at his destroyed supermarket on the ground floor of an earthquake-damaged building, he doesn’t blame his misfortune.

We knew we were living in an earthquake zone. It’s not fate. “People are to blame for making weak buildings,” the 50-year-old shopkeeper told Al Jazeera in the southern Turkish city of Osmaniye.

Chalishkan, like many earthquake victims, blamed construction companies and what he said was the corruption and incompetence of the authorities for allowing them to cut corners.

“The system is wrong from head to toe,” he said. “You can’t blame fate for everything – people have to do their jobs, they have to follow the laws.”

His shop is located in a building bearing the name of Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party and a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Bahceli was born in Osmaniye province, and there are no scratches in his mansion, which is about 100 meters away on the same street, while Shalishkan was not allowed to enter his building because it was not safe and would be demolished.

He could only salvage some of the goods from the outdoor refrigerator to take them back to the suppliers and reduce his debts. He estimates that he lost about 1 million Turkish liras ($53,000) from the disaster, has no insurance and no prospects for making a living, and says he has received no state support.

“Difficult days lie ahead,” he said.

Questions are growing about preparedness, condemnation and response to the disaster as the country struggles to recover nearly a week after the devastating magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 earthquakes that have now killed more than 35,000 people in Turkey and more than 5,800 in Syria.

Erdogan acknowledged “shortcomings” in the country’s earthquake response but insisted that the scale of the affected areas and the harsh winter conditions meant that “it is not possible to prepare for such a disaster”. Turkish authorities say some 13.5 million people have been affected in an area roughly the size of Britain.

But Erdogan’s critics accuse his government of enabling endemic corruption in the construction sector, poor enforcement of building regulations, perpetuating a decades-old practice of waiving safety certificates for unsafe buildings for a fee, and misusing an estimated $3 billion raised in the earthquake. A tax was imposed two decades ago that was supposed to make buildings earthquake-proof and make the country more prepared.

Turkey’s Minister of Justice, Bekir Bozdag, stated that an investigation would be opened into the collapsed buildings to identify and hold accountable all those who played a role. The authorities have ordered the arrest of more than 100 people suspected of being responsible for the collapsed buildings.

People sit while others search among the rubble in the aftermath of the earthquake in Kahramanmaras [Nir Elias/Reuters]

Opinions of the survivors are divided.

Doğan Esder, a 63-year-old school principal, and his wife, 53-year-old Fegen, live on the seventh floor of the Chalishkan Building. The authorities gave them food, clothing and a place to sleep in a dormitory.

“I want to say thanks to our government, it’s very strong, it helps us a lot – more than we need,” Duggan said.

Vision agreed that rogue builders were responsible for the shoddy construction, pointing to the ruins of an 11-story building across the street, in which about 80 people died, but said they had hidden their crimes from the authorities.

“It was fate – it’s enough to live our lives,” said Feigen.

At the same time, she could not imagine their future and was relying on her faith.

“We have no idea what we’re going to do,” said Feigen. “May God help us and show the right path.”

In many areas, survivors claimed that the state’s slow response enabled looting, limited rescue efforts, and failure to provide basic aid, such as tents.

In places like Hatay, which was isolated in the aftermath of the disaster with the main highway and airport badly damaged, the anger was colossal.

In Kahramanmaraş, a stronghold of conservative support for the ruling Justice and Development Party near the epicenter, survivors have been more tolerant of the state.

Ahmet Genci, a 30-year-old teacher, was staying with his wife, three-year-old son and father in a camp of about 120 tents set up on an artificial football pitch in the badly damaged town of Turkoglu. to Kahramanmaraş. They were lucky that they had a warehouse nearby that was owned by the state emergency and rescue agency, AFAD.

This is Turkey’s biggest disaster in a century. [The response] It was not enough, but the earthquake affected 10 cities and no one expected such a huge and large-scale disaster.

Genge said it was important for people to unite in the aftermath of the disaster.

He said, “One of the best things about the earthquake…we remember that we are all human beings, and we have to support and help each other.”

“If we respond with anger, what will happen? There will be fights.” “The pain is there, inside, but we have children so we must be organized, we must be leaders in society and set a good example.”

In many places, survivors solve their own problems with flexibility and community spirit.

In Kahramanmaraş, Hasan Ozbulat, 43, was both pragmatic and combative about the disaster.

His house had been damaged and he and his neighbors had made makeshift tents by securing canvas to covered benches in front of a library and placing wood-burning stoves in the tents. Forty people from 10 families sleep between two tents and five cars.

He said that while the authorities could have been better prepared, no one could be blamed for what was “an act of God”.

“It was a great lesson for us. We were so disrespectful to Mother Nature, and God gave us the answer.”

“Before the earthquake, we were divided,” he said, “and this reminds us that we have to come together again as a community.”

One thing that unites many people is anger at shoddy construction, even if people differ in their view of the state’s failure to regulate the construction sector.

While the Genji Building was damaged but still standing, dozens of people died in his neighborhood as tall buildings collapsed.

“People on a small scale think: ‘Let’s cut it out and make a lot of money.'” “But how many lives have been lost because of their love of money?” he said.

Collapsed building in Kahramanmaras [Stefanie Dekker/Al Jazeera]

The government’s response to the earthquake could have a major impact on the presidential and parliamentary elections, currently scheduled for May 14, which Erdogan was already poised to face a major challenge to his two-decade rule. Polls before the quake had indicated frustration with the country’s runaway inflation and currency crisis, but Erdogan hopes a series of recent stimulus measures and divisions within the opposition – including the failure to nominate a candidate so far – will lure voters back.

Erdogan came to power after the state’s botched response to the devastating 1999 Izmit earthquake, which killed more than 17,000 people. Some believe that this earthquake could be a case of history rhyming.

In Osmaniye, Caliskan said he used to vote for the AKP but will vote for the opposition in the elections after the earthquake.

“We need change and recovery. This government’s time must be over.

As Chingyi just contemplated passing each day, he said the election could provide a verdict on the government’s performance and its ability to handle a terrible recovery.

He said, “Do not count the first days, because it is a huge disaster, but after this minute we will see what the government does.”

“[Right now] “We don’t have any tears left,” he added. “I hope when this is over, we can learn many things from this disaster.”

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