16.02.2023

Ours but to build and die

The horrendous devastation and thirty thousand deaths caused by the Turkey-Syria earthquake is also a symptom of social decay. Esen Uslu reports

As readers will know, on February 6 two powerful earthquakes with close epicentres shook south-eastern Turkey and north-eastern Syria within nine hours. The first was of a 7.8 magnitude, the second 7.5 magnitude. Together they devastated the region and triggered numerous aftershocks that are likely to continue for some time to come.

Turkey’s provinces of Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman and Hatay suffered the heaviest damage, while adjacent provinces such as Osmaniye, Adana, Diyarbakır, Urfa were also badly hit. The length of the devastated zone is approximately 150 kilometres, with 13 million inhabitants. One of the fault lines follows the Levant coast in Syria, and the earthquake has caused havoc in towns which have already suffered damage from the war being fought over the last decade.

The miles-long surface ruptures, landslides and rock falls caused by the earthquakes destroyed many highways, bridges, viaducts, airport runways and railroads as well as phone lines, power lines, gas pipelines and other infrastructure, such as mobile communication systems. The region was paralysed and the highways from other cities were soon blocked by traffic jams.

Many towns and villages in Turkey have suffered from the consequences of shoddy construction practices prevailing in the country. Numerous residential buildings, including multi-storey flats, collapsed, their reinforced concrete structures crumbled and floor slabs pancaked on top of each other, while others lurched over onto adjacent buildings - reducing whole streets to a heap of rubble.

Thousands perished instantly, and many were buried alive - the first tremor struck in the early hours and caught many people asleep. The weather also added to the adverse effects of the disaster, as homeless people were caught in a major winter storm without any shelter.

Many state and local government buildings, including those housing emergency services, collapsed. Three of the four airports of the region became unusable, and fire broke out among the containers at the port of İskenderun.

Paralysed state

The much boasted “all-powerful state of Turkey” - Türkiye in the new parlance - has been paralysed by the enormity of the situation. The overcentralised decision-making system often means that first-response organisations, led by cronies of the regime, feel unable to act before receiving instructions from above. Overreliance on the ruling Justice and Development Party’s own networks, instead of public organisations, has been instrumental in similar situations in the past, rendering government responses ineffective. No doubt president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is fully aware of the rising anger amongst the population and is fearful of the likely effect in the forthcoming simultaneous presidential and general elections (due on June 18).

Two precious days were lost before Erdoğan finally managed to get his act together. Having obtained consent from the state bureaucracy and his coalition partners, the state began to get something done - including clamping down on grassroots organisations - especially leftwing youth and student groups, who were attempting to provide support and comfort to the devastated population through their own independent actions. The army was mobilised, while the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD), controlled by Erdoğan’s cronies, boasted that they were in control - even though they were unable to communicate with many of their own teams and found huge difficulties in reaching affected areas.

But putting on a show was more important than taking effective action. Pro-regime media channels went into overdrive to provide ‘miracle’ news of rescues. Journalists who attempted to question the effectiveness of the government’s response were threatened, harassed - even detained and jailed. While some trapped under the rubble were attempting to communicate via the internet and social media, various restrictions that slowed down the system were imposed on the grounds that ‘malicious propaganda’ was being spread against the state.

They have attempted to stop all collections by independent initiatives. Aid convoys organised by grassroots and municipalities have been halted on the pretext that assistance organised from below was causing chaos by blocking roads, etc. All rescue efforts must be under the control of AFAD (run by the ministry of the interior).

Then, on February 8, Erdoğan declared a state of emergency covering the affected region. This region, just like the rest of Turkey, is quite familiar with such ‘extraordinary measures’ and the arbitrary rule of the state - approximately two thirds of the republican era has seen states of siege, martial law and other states of emergency. This time the pretext was to combat looting and lawlessness. It came over though as a very apt ‘tribute’ to mark the centenary of the republic of Turkey, established in 1923. With his mind set on the presidential elections, which have been looking increasingly unwinnable, no doubt Erdoğan is contemplating using the state of emergency to delay things for a year or two.

Meanwhile, the security forces have arrested people accused of committing robberies in empty properties, and have meted out some severe beatings, which have resulted in the death of at least one man held by the police. Various “concerned citizens assisting the police” - in other words, rightwing thugs - have actually detained some people themselves: in one case tying them to a lamp post and leaving them there all night in freezing temperatures. Such maltreatment (in effect torture) has received no official condemnation. Immediately following the damage done by the earthquake, there were disturbances in two prisons, with the security forces brutally suppressing them, killing three inmates, and wounding others.

Karl Marx’s analysis about a society that is ripe for revolution, but where revolution does not happen, rings very true for Turkey. Society rots. Everybody knows that Turkey is a country of earthquakes - nature keeps reminding us every couple of years. That means that, in order to minimise loss of life, building quality must be greatly improved.

By 1999 over 18,000 people had lost their lives following earthquakes that occurred on the fault line crossing Istanbul province. The prediction was that further major earthquakes would hit the region within two or three decades. So new building regulations were drawn up, new policies were said to be implemented to improve the overall stock by taking down old, unsafe buildings and replacing them with new ones with earthquake-proof structures. A new tax was imposed for that purpose.

Corrupt society

So has the situation improved? Not an iota! Why? Because the get-rich-quick profiteering, based on a construction boom fuelled by state credits, was kept out of public scrutiny - in Turkey, building and selling property is the new Ponzi scheme. Under sky-high rates of inflation, borrowing and investing in property has become one of the most profitable ways of investing. But the state-sponsored rebuilding programme was oriented to the benefit of the various contractors, not the owners of land or dilapidated properties. To entice contractors into the rebuilding programme, the state turned a blind eye to the gross shortcomings in the legislation.

For example, during the legislative process on building control, architects’ and engineers’ organisations insisted that contractors and building control companies should be accredited by the state, and that they should also hold adequate public liability insurance. The construction industry created a hue and cry that such ‘leftwing’ organisations were trying to bankrupt them, since no business could afford such a burden. As a result the legislation was amended accordingly by the AKP.

Starting from the design engineers, through to the casual labour employed, everybody working in the construction industry is aware of the reality: the outsourcing of reinforcement bar installation or the making of moulds, the production of shoddily mixed concrete, etc - these are just some of the ways in which buildings very often do not meet the necessary standards. Lawyers, financiers, bankers, insurance and tax company workers, public notaries and title deed office and municipality employees - everyone involved in the process knows the actual situation. Even the hapless people investing all their savings into a flat are often aware of the problems, but do not have an affordable alternative.

Everybody knows the reality, but either is forced to bow before the situation of overwhelming economic hardship, or is discouraged by an all-powerful state from raising objections. They have no alternative but to continue to purchase or rent shoddy accommodation.

Perhaps Tennyson’s famous words on the Light Brigade should be amended to express the situation currently prevalent in Turkey’s corrupt society: ‘Ours not to reason why: ours but to build and die.’