One year on, empty promises and broken lives · Global Voices

Photo by Arzu Geybullayeva

February 6 marks one year since the devastating earthquake, described as the “disaster of the century,” struck the southern region of Turkey. At 4:17 a.m. local time, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey's Gaziantep province. Hours later, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck the Turkish state of Kahramanmaras. About eleven provinces in total were affected. The authorities issued a Level 4 warning – the highest warning level used in emergency situations and very serious risks – and requested international assistance.

Officially, the quake suddenly ended the lives of about 50,000 residents, injured more than 100,000 others, and upended the lives of hundreds of thousands more still living in container and tent cities a year later. A total of 37,000 buildings were officially destroyed across all provinces. An assessment report issued in March 2023 indicated that while another 18,000 buildings were identified as needing immediate and complete reconstruction, 650,000 buildings were identified as damaged. The earthquake also cost the country's economy more than 10 billion US dollars, leaving more than 650,000 people unemployed. At the time, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised that people would return to their normal lives within a year, with housing to be provided by the authorities upon completion. The president pledged to build 319,000 new homes by February 2024, and a total of 680,000 homes by 2025. But according to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, only 46,000 homes have been completed so far, leaving many earthquake survivors in makeshift shelters, containers and tents. .

When the earthquake struck, the authorities promised to respond quickly and rebuild the damage caused by the earthquake. This was just months before the general elections, and thus it was these promises that garnered support among the most affected people to vote for the ruling Justice and Development Party as well as the incumbent president.

Ample reports of the government's failure to prevent the extent of the damage have been forgotten, even though it is the same government that has passed 19 zoning amnesty laws since 1948, granting amnesty (for a fee) to building contractors who failed to meet safety standards. Many of the tent staging areas and recorded humanitarian responses after the earthquake disappeared with the building boom. Over the years, the AKP has rejected 58 proposals put forward by opposition politicians demanding the formation of an independent oversight committee to oversee building safety. The warnings issued by the experts of the Chamber of Geological Engineers were hollow.

According to Human Rights Watch, although “trials of real estate developers, building inspectors, and technical staff have begun in recent months…no public official, elected mayor, or city council member has yet to face prosecution for their role in approving many of the cases.” Construction projects that fell far short of safe construction standards or due to a failure to take measures to protect people living in buildings known to have structural problems in an area with a high risk of seismic activity.

But none of this changed the results of the vote. According to a review by TurkeyRecap at the time of last year's election, “the disaster did not produce radical shifts in voting preferences.”

Now, a year later, and a month before the local and municipal elections, the ruling party, led by the president, is making more promises in the hope of obtaining votes in the upcoming elections. Speaking in Hatay on the anniversary of the earthquake, President Erdogan pledged to deliver 75,000 housing units over the next two months across the provinces affected by the earthquake, and an additional 200,000 units by the end of 2024.

But the president also sent another public message ahead of the elections: Unless Hatay residents vote for AKP candidates, services will continue to lag. Hatay was one of the worst-hit provinces during the February earthquake, with the absence of search and rescue operations being strongly criticized by the public and experts alike for its lack of adequate emergency response, but also for its rejection of recommendations and reports submitted by the authorities. Engineers and earthquake experts.

However, housing is just one of the many other problems local residents still face. The agricultural sector suffered huge losses in the aftermath of the earthquake – “toxic dust, damaged water supplies, reduced crop quality, and reduced sales due to mass population displacement” are just some of these damages, Turkey Recap reports. Despite the significant support and aid provided to agricultural farmers over the past year, the environmental impact left by the earthquake remains.

In January 2024, an expert report prepared by Konya Technical University for two residential complexes in Kahramanmaras – Palmiye and Hamidiye – concluded that government officials were primarily at fault for the damage to the two residential buildings. The report concluded that the Hamidiyah was “approved by the relevant authorities” and “implemented without accountability,” even though it was built “in violation of engineering principles” and failed to comply with “the 1975 and 1998 seismic codes and standards.” Likewise, the expert report concluded that there was “deliberate negligence on the part of public officials” involved in approving the construction of the Palmieh housing complexes.

It remains to be seen whether justice will be served and those responsible will be held accountable. Mesut Hanser, who lost his 15-year-old daughter in the earthquake in Kahramanmaras, does not believe that justice will one day knock on their doors. According to expert reports, the building where his daughter died “was built on unstable ground, using poor-quality materials and concrete that could be broken into small pieces by hand.” But the Hanser family did not file a lawsuit, stressing that their attempts would be of no avail.

There is no central repository of earthquake-related data. As such, a lot of data is collected based on news reports, official statements, and statistical data. This makes statements like those made by Murat Kurum, the AKP's Istanbul mayoral candidate, even more confusing. Speaking to television, Corum, who served as the country's environment minister between 2018 and 2023, said a total of 130,000 people died after the February 6 earthquake. Local media and opposition parties picked up the quote and criticized the state for covering up the actual death toll. Corum later said the number did not refer to the February 6 earthquake, but the total number of deaths the country has seen in all earthquakes so far. But the latter is unbelievable if we take into account the available statistics, according to journalist Murat Agerel. In a screenshot of all deaths recorded in past earthquakes, Agerel tweeted: “According to this data, excluding the February 6 earthquake, the number of lives lost in earthquakes is 77,852 people.”

The official death tolls, the expert reports, the promises and the statements – a year later, none of it will bring back the lives lost, the broken futures, or any expectations of a return to normalcy.

As one resident of Antakya, the capital of Hatay Province, said in an interview with The Guardian: “We don’t expect Antakya to get back on its feet for at least another five years.” Even then, we still have to see uncertainty about how long it may take for Turkey to recover from the shock of the earthquake of the century. Especially when earthquake experts expect stronger tremors to hit cities like Istanbul – a city that is the lifeline of much of the country.

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