The international significance of the earthquake disaster in Turkey and Syria

These remarks were delivered by Ulaş Ateşçi, a senior member of the Social Equality Group in Turkey, at a meeting of youth and international students for social equality at New York University on March 11, 2023.

The international significance of the earthquake disaster in Turkey and Syria

I am pleased to address this meeting in the US on the massive earthquake disaster in Turkey and Syria last month, and I would like to thank the guys at IYSSE for the opportunity.

It is very important that this social catastrophe be discussed and understood worldwide because it is a global and historical event in every sense of the word. However, it must be emphasized that this destruction is not limited to Turkey and Syria. In 2015, scientists estimated that about 1.5 billion people live in earthquake-prone areas, and that number is growing. What is remarkable is that the official death toll from major earthquakes this century alone is around 750,000.

On February 6, two massive earthquakes within nine hours caused unprecedented destruction and loss of life in Turkey and Syria. The official total death toll in the two countries continues to rise and is approaching 60,000. It is believed that the true number of dead may be more than 150,000.

Turkey is an earthquake-prone country, and the region it hit last month has seen countless large earthquakes in the past. However, the last time it was believed that there was a loss of life on this scale was about 1,500 years ago.

Tremendous changes have occurred in human culture and technology over the past fifteen centuries. The industrial revolution and the scientific and technological revolution in the past decades in particular is an unprecedented progress in human history. It is not possible to control plate tectonics, but it is now entirely possible to make cities, infrastructures, and buildings resistant to large earthquakes. Masses of people can now be alerted of an impending earthquake, even if only shortly before it happens, through early warning systems.

However, despite decades of warnings by scholars about expected earthquakes in the region, no security measures have been taken by the ruling elites in Turkey or Syria. Millions of people living in unsafe buildings were left to their fate. No investment has even been made in an early warning system. That is why people in Hatay, where the earthquake hit hard, continued to sleep, unaware of the earthquake that started about a minute ago. It is possible that the masses in Syria would have had more time to leave their buildings. In short, all the devastation that occurred in these earthquakes could have been prevented. Tens of thousands of deaths could have been prevented.

The catastrophe caused by the earthquake in Syria cannot be understood outside the historical context of the decades-long imperialist wars across the Middle East. In the aftermath of the devastating wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, NATO powers led by the United States, including Turkey, launched a war of regime change in Syria in 2011. They and their proxies destroyed and divided the country. Moreover, the blockade and crippling sanctions imposed on Syria by the US-led imperialist powers prevented thousands of people from being rescued under the rubble. Virtually no aid was delivered to the survivors.

This point is of great importance. The United States and other NATO powers have spent more than $100 billion on the war in Ukraine. One hundred billion dollars for massive slaughter and destruction! By American estimates, which claim that Russia suffered 100,000 casualties, this means that $1 million was spent killing or wounding every Russian soldier in the war. In return, the US administration pledged only $185 million last month to earthquake victims. Which equates to about $7.50 for each of the 25 million people affected. And now the Biden administration is asking for $1 trillion for its 2024 military budget in preparation for global war against Russia and China. Trillions of dollars for war! But there is no money for emergency needs after the earthquake, let alone ensuring that people live in safe homes!

For Turkey, the responsibility of President Erdogan’s government for this massive social crime is clear. He has been in power for more than 20 years.

The “right to life,” first clearly expressed in the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776, has been enshrined in countless constitutions around the world. This includes the constitution of Turkey. It says: “Everyone has the right to life, to the protection and improvement of his material and spiritual existence.” The government is legally required to ensure this.

However, in today’s capitalist society, which is divided along class lines, governments are obliged, first of all, to fulfill the interests of the ruling class they represent. These interests prioritize capital gain and wealth accumulation over long-term investments in public health and safety. In this context, it must be emphasized that all political factions of the ruling class bear responsibility for this preventable catastrophe. This is, in the final analysis, a disaster resulting from the capitalist system that all establishment parties advocate.

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This means that this urgent and vital problem facing the masses cannot be solved by simply changing the government. In Turkey, more than 20 million people live in the Marmara region, including Istanbul, under imminent earthquake threat. A month after the February disaster, nothing has been done to ensure the safety of this huge number of people. The obstacles to this are social, not natural.

The earthquake disaster also clearly demonstrated the need for an international response to such global events. But there is another obstacle to this response: the capitalist division of the world into competing nation-states.

The same obstacles stand in the way of the global scientific response to the COVID-19 pandemic and global climate change. The “profits before lives” policy during the pandemic has resulted in more than 20 million deaths. Thousands of people continue to die globally every day from this preventable disease.

The fact that humanity is on the verge of a third world nuclear war also stems from the same basic contradictions of the capitalist system.

However, the same contradictions of capitalism that led to these social catastrophes are also driving the working class all over the world into struggle. This is the only social force that can prevent new disasters.

All these basic problems arising from the global capitalist system can only be solved on a global and socialist basis. Reorganizing the world economy on the basis of social needs, not private profit, is a task that can only be undertaken by the international working class.

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