One year after Türkiye earthquake, hundreds of thousands still in sheltersExBulletin

A woman stands next to a lamp inside a tent in Antakya, southern Turkey, on January 12. Khalil Hamra/AFP .

. Khalil Hamra/AP

A woman stands next to a lamp inside a tent in Antakya, southern Turkey, on January 12.

Khalil Hamra/AP

ANTAKYA, Turkey – Emine Tanreka survived last year's powerful earthquake that devastated parts of Turkey and Syria, and is living in a makeshift shelter in one of several camps for displaced people dotting the region. She wonders when she might see the new housing the Turkish government has been promising for months.

“Life is not easy here,” says 47-year-old Tanrika. She adds that she and her family lived “in large rooms before the earthquake, and after that we came to this narrow container, and I was sick.” She explained that she went to the hospital earlier today suffering from difficulty breathing and an accelerated heartbeat.

Turkey this week marked the first anniversary of the earthquake that killed more than 53,000 people in the country and left more than 3 million without housing. Thousands gathered in a protest on Tuesday to mourn what the government calls “the disaster of the century.” But even as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledges to rebuild damaged cities and rehouse displaced people, hundreds of thousands of people remain in camps waiting for housing.

Antakya, built on the site of the ancient city of Antioch, was one of the cities most affected by the earthquake that occurred on February 6, 2023. Much of the modern city collapsed.

A man and a dog walk past a destroyed building in Antakya, Hatay Province, on Monday. Ozan Kos/AFP via Getty Images .

. Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images

A man and a dog walk past a destroyed building in Antakya, Hatay Province, on Monday.

Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images

A woman cries over the grave of a relative at a cemetery on Tuesday, marking the first anniversary of the February 6, 2023, earthquake that destroyed parts of Turkey and Syria. Evkan Akyuz/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty .

. Efekan Akyuz/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty

A woman cries over the grave of a relative at a cemetery on Tuesday, marking the first anniversary of the February 6, 2023, earthquake that destroyed parts of Turkey and Syria.

Efkan Akyuz/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty

Even some of those who have been allowed to return home say it is stressful being there.

19-year-old Nuria says her family fled to the city of Nevsehir, in Turkey's central Anatolia region, after the earthquake. They were not sure what they would find when they returned to Antioch. She doesn't want her last name used so she can speak frankly about the government's response to the earthquake.

She says inspectors classified her family's home in Antakya as having “slight damage,” but she does not feel safe there.

“If there is another earthquake, our two-storey house will most likely collapse,” she says. “I don't think the columns are strong.”

She added: “We have a tent outside the house, and when it shakes we go out.”

She says that Antakya used to be a fun place to spend time with her friends, but not anymore.

“We are in bad shape,” she says. “To be honest, I want to leave here. I want to go.”

Unfulfilled promises of rebuilding

Last spring, the government estimated the total cost of earthquake damage in Turkey at more than $103 billion. Independent economists say it is close to $150 billion over five years.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in May promised a robust reconstruction programme, pledging to build some 319,000 new safe homes in the first year.

So far, reconstruction efforts have not reached that level, and critics say there is cause for concern about the pace and quality of reconstruction.

Mustafa Ozcelik, head of the Chamber of Turkish Engineers and Architects, points out that most of the rebuilding so far has taken place on the outskirts of cities like Antakya, while the severely damaged city center is still subject to demolition of destroyed buildings.

Residents walk past an earthquake-damaged building in Hatay on Monday. Evkan Akyuz/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty .

. Efekan Akyuz/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty

Residents walk past an earthquake-damaged building in Hatay on Monday.

Efkan Akyuz/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty

Ozcelik wonders why the government did not quickly build better temporary housing for the displaced and keep them safe while proper reconstruction efforts ensued.

“They are building about 40,000 houses, but the need is 290,000,” he says.

“They should have built good temporary housing. People live a miserable life in shipping containers, because there is no way they can deliver so many permanent buildings quickly.”

Will those responsible be held accountable?

If you ask Mehmet Dogu, a 24-year-old Antakya resident who lives in a shipping container, who is responsible for the poorly built structures that collapsed so quickly in the earthquakes, he wouldn't hesitate.

“Well, people blame the municipality, of course, because it's the one that allows you to build a seven- or 10-storey building,” he says. “Where do you get the license? You get the license from the municipality.”

Turkey has a long history of deadly earthquakes, and this is not the first time the public has raised questions about official complicity in exacerbating the effects of natural disasters.

The 1999 Izmit earthquake sparked public condemnations of contractors, who were accused of using cheap materials and neglecting safety measures designed to help buildings resist severe damage from earthquakes.

In the years that followed, prosecutors filed more than 1,300 lawsuits related to alleged illegal construction practices by contractors in the hardest-hit cities, but only 35 of those prosecutions resulted in convictions.

People cry in front of a coffin during the funeral of Cypriot students killed in the earthquake that struck Turkey, in the eastern city of Famagusta, in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state of northern Cyprus, on February 11, 2023. Birol Bebek/AFP via Getty Images .

. Birol Bebek/AFP via Getty Images

People cry in front of a coffin during the funeral of Cypriot students killed in the earthquake that struck Turkey, in the eastern city of Famagusta, in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in northern Cyprus, on February 11, 2023.

Birol Bebek/AFP via Getty Images

Relatives of the missing hold a banner with pictures reading “Look for our lives lost in the earthquake” at a cemetery during a gathering marking the first anniversary of a strong earthquake that struck the area in Antakya, Hatay Province, southern Turkey, on Tuesday. Ozan Kos/AFP via Getty Images .

. Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images

Relatives of the missing hold a banner with pictures reading “Look for our lives lost in the earthquake” at a cemetery during a gathering marking the first anniversary of a strong earthquake that struck the area in Antakya, Hatay Province, southern Turkey, on Tuesday.

Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images

More than two decades later, public prosecutors are trying to hold those responsible accountable after the 2023 disaster, with mixed results.

They demanded a 22-and-a-half-year prison term for the mayor of a town in hard-hit Gaziantep province because of his alleged role, before taking office, as a contractor who built an apartment building that collapsed in the earthquakes. Twenty-six people died in the collapsed building.

Prosecutors said evidence showed the former contractor, Okes Kavak, bypassed building codes and safety procedures that help structures resist damage from earthquakes, but he was acquitted. The release of Kavak – who belongs to Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party – sparked condemnation from the victims' families and prosecutors, and he was rearrested in January. He has not yet been retried and neither he nor his lawyers have commented.

However, critics point out that he was not alone. A survey of more than 1,700 buildings that collapsed across southern Turkey, causing deaths, showed that more than half of them were unlicensed buildings.

Emma Sinclair Webb of Human Rights Watch says the long-standing practice of focusing on “rogue contractors” should be expanded to include public servants who sign off on unsafe projects.

Earthquake survivor Rafat Donmez (center) sits on mattresses with his wife and son inside a tent in Antakya, southern Turkey, on January 12. Khalil Hamra/AP .

. Khalil Hamra/AP

Earthquake survivor Rafat Donmez (center) sits on mattresses with his wife and son inside a tent in Antakya, southern Turkey, on January 12.

Khalil Hamra/AP

She says mayors, city council members and planning departments across Turkey need to step up and seriously implement building codes and safety standards.

“All of these people have a responsibility to do their jobs properly, not be complacent, and not let their political connections or ‘nepotism’ with contractors influence their decision-making,” she says.

Sinclair-Webb says Turkish law requires prosecutors to obtain government permission before investigating a public official, something that has previously been used to protect officials suspected of misconduct.

“There is a significant risk at the moment that this law will again be used to prevent government officials from being properly investigated for their crimes related to this earthquake,” she says.

President Erdogan said his party is not at fault for the ongoing misery and slow reconstruction in the earthquake zone. He blames a “lack of vision” among local leaders – most of whom are from the secular opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

Municipal elections are scheduled to be held in Turkey at the end of next March.

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