Türkiye The Turkish government confiscates houses – suitable for habitation

The investigation reveals the effects of the amendment passed in November on thousands of people. The expropriation aims to create “backup construction areas”, a temporary measure to speed up the recovery process. Citizens protest: 'We are able to repair our homes.'

Istanbul (AsiaNews) – It is a relief and luck, amidst the devastation, to see one's house still standing while the earthquake destroyed entire neighborhoods everywhere, followed, less than a year later, by the bitter surprise of seeing the government seize it with a short, cold text message. On the phone to notify of the confiscation action.

This is what happened to 61-year-old Habib Yabar, originally from southern Turkey, who was also struck by the February 6, 2023 earthquake, and who last October had to symbolically hand over the keys to his house in Hatay province. To officials in the Ministry of Treasury.

Yabar's story appeared in a Reuters investigation published today, which affected several thousand other citizens who survived the earthquake and were affected by the amendment to the urban planning law.

Turkish Urban Planning Minister Mehmet Ozhaski said in early February that the government needed the new powers stipulated in the law amendment to speed up the redevelopment of neighborhoods in cities severely damaged by the earthquake.

The city of Hatay, on the border with Syria, suffered the most damage during the deadliest earthquake in the country's modern history, and since then, reconstruction appears to have fallen behind ambitious deadlines – and plans – set by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

According to the regulation, approved in November, the expropriations were intended to create “reserve construction areas,” a temporary measure to speed up the recovery process. Affected people will have the right to acquire a new property after paying the construction cost, without any damage. Provide details of the financial burden.

Although earthquake insurance is mandatory, the rule is not always enforced and often only covers part of the costs of rebuilding or purchasing a property. The Reuters investigation, which interviewed dozens of residents, lawyers and officials, found that thousands of homeowners were caught off guard by the takeover plans, and many learned from social media that their properties would be affected.

As with Yabar, dozens of people in the coastal town of Samandag received letters before the amendment was passed in November. Five months later, the government has provided no information on the payments, what will happen if they cannot make them, any compensation they may be entitled to, and exactly when and for how long their bonds will be in the executive's possession.

Yabar lives with his wife, son and daughter in a makeshift tent. Like him, at least 215,000 survivors from Hatay live in camps or tents. He was a retired civil engineer saving money to repair his two-storey house, but with the ownership transferred to the government, he was unable to start work and it is currently scheduled for demolition. He has filed a lawsuit against the demolition, denying that the building is unrecoverable and unusable. “We can – he says – rebuild our homes ourselves and we do not want a single cent from the state.”

The story of the 61-year-old engineer is not an isolated case in Hatay, as several lawsuits have already been filed in the courts against forced expropriation, while there are no official comments from the Ministry of Urban Planning and the President's Office. Meanwhile, several opposition parties submitted parliamentary questions asking the ministry for more information about the new law, but they remained unanswered.

Hatice Altinuz said she and her son Ahmed had to leave their damaged apartment in Antakya because it was located in an area that had been largely cleared for reconstruction. She points out that “the authorities did not provide us with a container to live in because the building we were living in had not collapsed, so I moved to my daughter's container house.”

“My family and I – comments Delay Dollar, 57 years old, businessman – have worked hard to own these assets […] But now it is not clear what the future holds for us.”

Recently Msgr. Paolo Bizzetti, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia and recently reappointed head of Caritas Turkey, had warned of “critical issues” in post-earthquake management due to the “tremendous dimensions” of the tragedy and uncertainties. “There will be a need for organizational plans – warned the bishop – ideas and projects, and management that is not clientelistic.”

In total, Erdogan promised to provide 254,000 new homes for Hatay Province; Fewer than 7,300 of them have been completed so far, according to data from the governor's office.

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