Government policy worsens the death toll from Turkey’s earthquake

There have been 22 earthquakes of great magnitude around the world so far this year. The worst of them struck Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city, on October 30, killing more than 100 people. Such loss of life is tragic enough, but when it is clearly linked to a failure that goes straight to the heart of government, it becomes unreasonable.

Unsupervised, unregulated and unauthorized construction and unplanned urban sprawl have always been a problem in Turkey. But under the AKP and its obsession with building, they became dangerous.

Building codes are full of gray areas, which the AKP has failed to address. But the government’s habit of exempting those who build buildings without proper permits or permit is even more alarming, as it creates a climate in which builders feel they can get away with disregarding the regulations without thinking about how they endanger their lives for their own citizens. .

Since 1948 Parliament has passed 19 “zoning pardons” laws that, upon payment of fees, grant amnesty to those responsible for the construction of illegal buildings, or illegal additions to existing buildings. It’s an easy source of income for the government, but it leaves the country littered with unsafe and unsafe buildings – up to 40,000, according to some experts.

As Murat Korum, Minister of Environment and Urbanization, explained last year: “The buildings may have been pardoned under the Zoning Amnesty Law, but that does not mean that they are permanent or solid.”

The most recent amnesty law for zoning was issued in May 2018. 1.8 million applicants from all over Turkey benefited from it and filled government coffers with the equivalent of $ 2 billion. In Izmir, the scene of that last deadly earthquake, there were around 811,000 apps associated with illegal buildings.

“Quality, regulation and supervision are not prioritized,” said Celine Sik Bok, Secretary General of the opposition CHP and Member of Parliament for Izmir.

In 1999, an earthquake in Golcuk, a town on the coast of the Sea of ​​Marmara, killed more than 18,000 people, although unofficial reports put the number at over 45,000. Investigations into the disaster showed that 120,000 homes were irreparably damaged. Poorly designed. The need for building contractors to be qualified and properly organized has never been more apparent or urgent. Little has changed.

For a potential contractor to obtain the Certificate of Proficiency, they need three things: a clean criminal record, an application form, and around $ 300. There is no mention of training or qualifications in the requirements. This goes some way towards explaining why there are 454,000 licensed contractors in Turkey, while Germany, a country of similar size and population, only has 274,000.

The bodies of 34 people buried under the rubble of an İzmir apartment complex last month attest to the lawlessness of the wild west pervasive in the Turkish construction industry. The eight-story building was built on swampy land, and a later investigation revealed that the wrong materials were used in its construction.

The complete lack of inspections of construction companies and the absence of any enforcement of construction rules are major issues that arise every time an investigation follows a tragedy like Riza Bey. Opposition politicians have submitted 58 proposals since 2003 urging the creation of a building inspection body to ensure building safety. The AKP voted against everyone.

The opposition also called for a law that would limit and regulate construction in 18 municipalities that are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. But passing the so-called “plate tectonics law” requires amending the constitution, which has yet to be debated by Parliament.

Since 2002, Turkish taxpayers have paid an additional “earthquake tax” on nearly every financial transaction they make, from income tax to auto tax and even on plane tickets. The earthquake tax was imposed as a temporary measure to create an emergency and disaster fund, and it collected more than 140 billion Turkish liras ($ 17.4 billion) from taxpayers.

However, there is widespread suspicion that it has been abused – an idea promoted by former Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, who admitted spending it on health, education and highway construction.

When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was questioned last January after an earthquake in the eastern province of Elazig left 41 people dead, he replied, “No one would ask where the earthquake tax money was spent. It was spent where it should be spent.”

Not only was this cruel, it was a mistake. How taxpayer money is spent is a very big deal for everyone – the law says it. Legal experts point out that Turkey’s Public Financial Management and Control Law requires that the government be accountable and transparent about how it spends taxpayers’ money.

Earthquakes are a fact of life in Turkey. You cannot ignore nature. But you can build accordingly and with care, the power of nature crumbling. Until that happens, Turkey can only wait for its next tragedy.

This article was made available by the union office, which owns the copyright.

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