Turkey’s Earthquakes Show The Deadly Extent Of Construction Scams
WHEN THE quake hit, the apartment block in Osmaniye, a city in southern Turkey, where Halise Sen had once lived collapsed like a house of cards, burying her former neighbours under nine floors of concrete. Mrs Sen, the head of the local chamber of architects, looks over the wreckage. “There’s no reinforced steel here,” she says, “so the concrete lost its strength and the columns collapsed, along with the floors, as soon as the ground started to shake.”
None of the blocks had basements, says her husband Mustafa, a former developer. Buildings with such weak foundations were doomed in a strong earthquake, he adds. Mustafa, who now grows olives and walnuts, stopped working in the construction sector years ago. Other contractors were undercutting his prices and ignoring building codes. “If we used 100 tonnes of iron in a building, they would use 90 tonnes,” he says. Osmaniye sits near an active faultline. “I knew we were on the brink of catastrophe,” he says.
That catastrophe struck on February 6th, in the form of two earthquakes, of magnitudes 7.8 and 7.5. They are the deadliest in Turkey’s modern history. Along the length of the impact zone, which stretches from the country’s Mediterranean coast to the Kurdish south-east, thousands of buildings, some more than a dozen floors high, have been flattened. At least 30,000 are dead in Turkey alone. Across the border in Syria, the death toll has surpassed 3,500.
More than 30,000 rescue workers, accompanied by locals and emergency teams from dozens of countries, are working around the clock to locate survivors. Miracles happen. More than six days after the quake a baby was pulled from the rubble. Turkish firefighters, miners and construction workers are everywhere, removing wreckage and delivering help, food and supplies.
But the rescue effort increasingly resembles a mass exhumation. Tens of thousands of people are still thought to be buried under the wreckage. In Kahramanmaras, a city of more than 500,000, smoke from fires that broke out as a result of the quake (or were started by people trying to keep warm) envelops mounds of rubble that stretch for entire city blocks. The same smoke, accompanied by the thickening stench of death, covers Adiyaman, more than 100km to the east. A Kurdish family huddles and weeps as rescue teams pull five dead relatives from the debris. A woman faints.
Across the region, millions of people made homeless sleep in tent cities provided by the country’s emergency-relief agency, in mosques, schools, libraries or in their own cars. Few dare enter their homes, even those seemingly untouched by the quakes. Some have nowhere to go. Mehmet, a cleric in Adiyaman, sleeps in a garage covered with a tarp along with 20 relatives. More than 30 of his family members are dead.
The delayed response and a shortage of heavy equipment compounded the suffering. Emergency teams took days to reach cities like Adiyaman. By then the voices of survivors were growing weaker or falling silent. In places like Sekeroba, a picturesque village under snow-capped mountains where at least 200 people are thought to have died, residents dug through the rubble themselves and brought the dead to a nearby hospital. “There was a tent there,” says Bilal Sut, a local man, “and inside the bodies were piled up one on top of another.”
The biggest cause of deaths, however, may have been shoddy building standards, corruption and bad policymaking. All are part of Turkey’s economic model, which is powered by construction and rent-seeking. The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, bears much of the blame, analysts say. But so do its predecessors, as well as municipalities (some run by the opposition), developers and planners. “This is a perfect crime,” says Murat Guvenc, an urban planner and academic. “Everybody has their finger in the pie.”
Turkey has strict building codes, adopted in the wake of an earthquake that killed 18,000 people on the outskirts of Istanbul in 1999 and updated five years ago. Under an urban-renewal scheme thought up by Mr Erdogan’s government, more than 3m housing units have been renewed.
The problems lie in implementation and oversight. Building permits are easy to acquire and inspections are weak. Companies mandated by the government to carry them out are paid by the developers. Projects usually comply with government standards at the start of construction, but not by the end, says Mr Guvenc. As soon as the inspectors leave, developers reduce the amount or the quality of the iron they use or cut down on the number of stirrups, the steel loops that prevent beams and columns from buckling under pressure. They may even tack on an extra floor. Then they enter informal negotiations with local authorities. “A lot of money may end up changing hands,” says Mr Guvenc. “We are talking about corruption par excellence.”
This means the difference between life and death. In Osmaniye, as elsewhere, most of the collapsed buildings date back to before the 1999 earthquake. But scores of new ones, ostensibly constructed according to new standards, have also come down or suffered irreparable damage. Hundreds of people may be trapped under a luxury housing estate completed only a decade ago in Antakya, south of Osmaniye. The contractor responsible was arrested on February 11th while attempting to leave Turkey. In nearby Erzin county, however, not a single building collapsed. The local mayor and his predecessor told local media that they did not allow any illegal construction. Both used the same phrase: “My conscience is clear.”
Construction amnesties, which allow owners to register unlicensed properties or ones that violate building codes in exchange for a fine, have made a bad situation much worse. Mr Erdogan’s government passed several such amnesties, the latest in 2018, ahead of general elections. The opposition backed the move, because it was popular with voters. The government reaped the political dividends, while millions of property owners ended up paying into state coffers and assuming the risk. A year after the 2018 amnesty, Mr Erdogan appeared in Kahramanmaras, proudly announcing that the programme “had solved the problems” of 144,000 of the city’s residents. The agency in charge of the programme revealed that more than half of the country’s housing stock did not comply with building standards.
“Look,” says Mrs Sen, pointing to what remains of her old neighbourhood, “if these buildings which were legally built and approved by the municipality at the time collapsed, then how can the illegal ones survive?” Things need to change from the top down, says her husband. Politics will have to stay out of urban development and zoning plans, supervision will need to dramatically improve and the patronage networks connecting government officials and the construction sector will have to be broken up. “Otherwise,” he says, “ten years from now you’ll see the same scenes you see here somewhere else.” ■
Turkey Earthquake Rescuers Find 'miracle' Survivors But Frustration Grows
KAHRAMANMARAS/ANTAKYA, Turkey, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Rescuers in Turkey pulled several people alive from collapsed buildings on Monday, a week after the country's worst earthquake in modern history, but hopes of many more survivors were fading and criticism of the authorities grew.
In hard-hit Kahramanmaras, rescuers were attempting to reach a grandmother, mother and daughter, all from one family, who appeared to have survived the 7.8 magnitude Feb. 6 quake and aftershock which killed more than 37,000 in Turkey and Syria.
But others were bracing for the inevitable scaling down of operations as low temperatures reduced the already slim chances of survival, with some Polish rescuers announcing they would leave on Wednesday.
In the shattered Syrian city of Aleppo, U.N. Aid chief Martin Griffiths said the rescue phase was "coming to a close", with the focus switching to shelter, food and schooling. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had agreed to allow more U.N. Aid to access the war-torn country from Turkey, diplomats said late Monday.
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There were still glimmers of hope. A 13-year-old was pulled out alive after spending 182 hours under the rubble of a collapsed building in Turkey's southern Hatay province on Monday, his head braced, and covered for warmth, before he was moved into an ambulance.
A young girl named Miray was recovered alive in the southeastern Turkish city of Adiyaman, officials said, while state broadcaster TRT Haber said a 10-year-old girl was rescued in Kahramanmaras.
At least two other children and three adults were also reported to have been rescued.
THREE GENERATIONS TRAPPEDIn the city of Kahramanmaras, rescuers said they had contact with a grandmother, mother and baby trapped in a room in the remains of a three-storey building. Rescuers were digging a second tunnel to reach them, after a first route was blocked, and a human chain was formed to carry out the rubble in buckets.
"I have a very strong feeling we are going to get them," said Burcu Baldauf, head of the Turkish voluntary healthcare team. "It's already a miracle. After seven days, they are there with no water, no food and in good condition."
On the same street, emergency workers covered a body in a black bag. "This is your brother," one grieving woman said, with another wailing, "no, no."
The Turkish toll now exceeds the 31,643 killed in a quake in 1939, the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said, making it the worst quake in Turkey's modern history.
[1/10] A general view of destroyed houses covered in snow, in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake, in Elbistan town, Kahramanmaras, Turkey February 12, 2023. REUTERS/Issam Abdallah
The total death toll in Syria, a nation ravaged by more than a decade of civil war, has reached 5,714, including those who died in both the rebel enclave and government-held areas.
It is the sixth most deadly natural disaster this century, behind the 2005 tremor that killed at least 73,000 in Pakistan.
Turkey faces a bill of as much as $84 billion, a business group said. Turkey's Urbanisation Minister Murat Kurum said some 42,000 buildings had either collapsed, were in urgent need of demolition, or severely damaged across ten cities.
Dozens of residents and overwhelmed first responders who spoke to Reuters expressed bewilderment at a lack of water, food, medicine, body bags and cranes in the disaster zone, with many criticising an overly slow and centralised response by Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).
"God knows what will happen next," said Ismail Yuvarlak, 42. He said he was living in a tent after his house in Kahramanmaras had been condemned by authorities who in his words had left his family to figure things out on their own.
Said Qudsi travelled to Kahramanmaras from Istanbul and buried his uncle, aunt and their two sons, while their two daughters were still missing.
"People are not dead because of the earthquake, they are dead because of precautions that weren't taken earlier," he said.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who faces an election scheduled for June that is expected to be the toughest of his two decades in power, acknowledged problems in the initial response but said the situation was now under control.
SYRIA AIDThe earthquake has fanned resentment among some Turks towards the millions of Syrian refugees who have fled their country's civil war in recent years to relocate to Turkey. Syrians said they had been accused of looting, kicked out of camps, and called names.
Syria's rebel-held northwest has itself received little aid. A source from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group which controls much of the region, told Reuters the group would not let in shipments from government-held areas and aid would come from Turkey.
Assad has agreed to allow three border crossings to operate between Turkey and Syria for a three-month period, U.N. Aid chief Martin Griffiths told a closed-door Security Council meeting on Monday, according to diplomats. To date, there has been only one open, which has slowed the flow of necessary aid.
Additional reporting by Umit Bektas, Maya Gebeily, Daren Butler, Yesim Dikmen, Ece Toksabay, Timour Azhari, Suleiman al-Khalidi, Mehmet Caliskan, Alan Charlish and Ghaida Ghantous; Writing by Conor Humphries and Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Robert Birsel, Christina Fincher and Lincoln Feast.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Ways To Help Victims Of Turkey, Syria Earthquake
The devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Feb. 6, was followed by a series of tremors that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria causing widespread destruction. Tens of thousands of people were killed and many more were rendered homeless. If you want to help, here are some organizations to consider:The White Helmets – The White Helmets, also known as the Syria Civil Defense, are a humanitarian aid organization that operates in areas of war-torn Syria where public services no longer function.Syrian American Medical Society – The Syrian American Medical Society is an international medical relief organization that has provided assistance since 2011 to victims of war in Syria.Doctors Without Borders – A global humanitarian network that provides medical care, supplies and support to people in Syria and more than 70 other countries.International Blue Crescent Relief and Development Foundation – The International Blue Crescent Relief and Development Foundation has offices in Gaziantep, Turkey, near the epicenter of the quake, and has been working to dispatch teams to affected communities in both Turkey and Syria. GlobalGiving – An organization that connects emergency relief nonprofits around the world with donors.Project HOPE – A U.S.-based international humanitarian aid nonprofit that has deployed emergency response teams to Turkey and Syria.Bridge to Turkey Fund– Founded by Turkish-American volunteers, the Bridge to Turkey Fund has raised hundreds of thousands so far to help earthquake victims in Turkey. ICNA Relief – ICNA Relief seeks to alleviate human suffering by providing caring and compassionate service to victims of adversity and survivors of disasters.CARE – A leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty, CARE is working to rush emergency aid such as food and cold weather supplies to earthquake victims. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies – The IFRC is the world’s largest humanitarian network, comprising 192 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. The organization has launched two emergency appeals to generate support for victims of the earthquake. UNICEF USA – UNICEF works in more than 190 countries and territories to protect and support children. UNICEF is on the ground helping children and families impacted by the quake.The International Rescue Committee – The organization is providing emergency services to families in Turkey and Syria, including cash assistance, hygiene supplies and safe spaces for women and children.Oxfam – A global organization that fights inequality, Oxfam is working with local partners in Turkey and Syria to determine the best ways to help earthquake survivors.Turkish Philanthropy Funds – The leading U.S. Community foundation for high-impact social investments dedicated to Turkish and Turkish-American communities.
NEEDHAM, Mass. —The devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake on Feb. 6, was followed by a series of tremors that struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria causing widespread destruction. Tens of thousands of people were killed and many more were rendered homeless.
If you want to help, here are some organizations to consider:
The White Helmets – The White Helmets, also known as the Syria Civil Defense, are a humanitarian aid organization that operates in areas of war-torn Syria where public services no longer function.
Syrian American Medical Society – The Syrian American Medical Society is an international medical relief organization that has provided assistance since 2011 to victims of war in Syria.
Doctors Without Borders – A global humanitarian network that provides medical care, supplies and support to people in Syria and more than 70 other countries.
International Blue Crescent Relief and Development Foundation – The International Blue Crescent Relief and Development Foundation has offices in Gaziantep, Turkey, near the epicenter of the quake, and has been working to dispatch teams to affected communities in both Turkey and Syria.
GlobalGiving – An organization that connects emergency relief nonprofits around the world with donors.
Project HOPE – A U.S.-based international humanitarian aid nonprofit that has deployed emergency response teams to Turkey and Syria.
Bridge to Turkey Fund– Founded by Turkish-American volunteers, the Bridge to Turkey Fund has raised hundreds of thousands so far to help earthquake victims in Turkey.
ICNA Relief – ICNA Relief seeks to alleviate human suffering by providing caring and compassionate service to victims of adversity and survivors of disasters.
CARE – A leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty, CARE is working to rush emergency aid such as food and cold weather supplies to earthquake victims.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies – The IFRC is the world’s largest humanitarian network, comprising 192 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. The organization has launched two emergency appeals to generate support for victims of the earthquake.
UNICEF USA – UNICEF works in more than 190 countries and territories to protect and support children. UNICEF is on the ground helping children and families impacted by the quake.
The International Rescue Committee – The organization is providing emergency services to families in Turkey and Syria, including cash assistance, hygiene supplies and safe spaces for women and children.
Oxfam – A global organization that fights inequality, Oxfam is working with local partners in Turkey and Syria to determine the best ways to help earthquake survivors.
Turkish Philanthropy Funds – The leading U.S. Community foundation for high-impact social investments dedicated to Turkish and Turkish-American communities.
