17.11.2011

Neglect and chauvinism

The second Van earthquake has once again exposed the Turkish state's twisted priorities, writes Esen Uslu

Since the 7.6 magnitude earthquake of October 23, numerous lesser aftershocks have continued to hit the devastated Van province. The gradually reducing magnitude of tremors led the government, and overly centralised government-appointed officialdom, to believe that the worst had passed and a more relaxed approach was the order of the day.

In their wisdom they started to make optimistic statements. The minister for environment and urban planning, Erdo?an Bayraktar, held a press conference and advised people that the worst of the aftershocks expected would be at most 5.5 magnitude, so it was safe to move back into homes and other buildings that were not seriously damaged.

The governor of the mainly Kurdish Van province, Münir Karalo?lu, echoed the minister’s call, even if the structures in question were slightly damaged. The authorities organised teams of engineers to visit properties, inspect them from the outside, make a judgement on the level of damage, and advise people accordingly either to stay away or return to their property.

Given the deeply ingrained mistrust of the local population towards officialdom, not many took their advice seriously and they voted with their feet and stayed outside. However, some public buildings passed through the same type of superficial inspection and were given a clean bill of health. Some were hotels used by rescue workers, civil servants temporarily posted to Van and journalists following the earthquake story. One of these hotels had even been used to accommodate the entourage of the president, Abdullah Gül, during his tour of Van.

A stunning answer to the government’s ‘official optimism’ came on November 9 with a 5.6 magnitude earthquake on a fault line to the south of Van city. Although this was less severe than the October 23 quake, 27 damaged buildings collapsed. Twenty-five were empty, thanks to the prudence of the occupiers. However, the remaining two were hotels which had been damaged on October 23, but were deemed safe by the inspectors, and quickly ‘repaired’ with plaster and a coat of paint. Forty people died under the rubble, adding to the 600-plus death toll following the initial earthquake. Among them were Japanese aid workers, as well as some quite prominent reporters of the mainstream media.

Government ministers again headed into the earthquake zone and, while they were ‘overseeing’ the search and rescue effort, angry citizens started to shout, boo and hurl abuse, reminding them of their callous and negligent advice. The governor also got his share of abuse, and was called on to resign.

The ministers and governor quickly turned on their heels, whereupon the police immediately attacked the protesting quake victims with batons and pepper gas. The victims were dispersed, but the gas affected the search and rescue workers, who were forced to halt their efforts, as they desperately tried to wash their eyes and recover their breath. Even the coy mainstream media felt obliged to report the incident, and several videos of the police brutality quickly appeared on various internet sites.

When the press started to dig, it became clear that, while the state was unable to organise the efficient delivery of aid, it had no problem in mobilising its forces to suppress ‘unrest’. As a part of its initial response to the October 23 earthquake the ministry of internal affairs mobilised its rapid reaction force, while the ministry of defence did its bit by sending in the gendarmerie. It turned out that in the first few days after the quake security forces had even raided houses to arrest four ‘terrorists’. The war against Kurdish freedom fighters never stopped.

Freezing

The second quake came during exceptionally cold weather and snow. The inadequacies of the canvas tents and makeshift tarpaulin shelters provided to the homeless were quickly exposed. For many families the only protection from the frozen earth was an inch of Styrofoam board taken from the rubble.

Many resorted to charcoal stoves to heat their tents, resulting in a number of deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning, including entire families. Others died from hypothermia or severe respiratory diseases - children and the elderly were most badly affected. Public kitchens were set up in the government-organised tent cities, but the hundreds who had no other means of obtaining hot food were forced to stand in long queues for hours in the freezing weather.

The twisted priorities of the government became apparent. The tent cities and kitchens were actually for controlling the population, not primarily for rendering assistance. In pursuit of ‘victory’ over the Kurds, the state was prepared to sacrifice those who would not submit to such control. Opposition groups were quick to offer advice to the government: why not let the earthquake victims stay at the publicly owned seaside resorts reserved for the summer holidays of top officials during the winter?

People who could afford to do so started to leave Van - the press reported that bus tickets could only be purchased after a week-long wait. When the government realised that people were voting with their feet, it started to arrange coaches to take people away itself. As a result Van city quickly became deserted. The governor made a public plea for further aid, stating that only one official building remained operational. Even the recently constructed emergency management centre had suffered heavy damage.

However, the governor never contemplated resigning - or using the police to track down the profiteering criminals responsible for unsafe constructions. Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has claimed that those responsible for declaring damaged buildings safe after superficial inspections would be brought to justice, but he will not consider taking action against those guilty of the original negligence and breach of safety regulations.

However, the government was quick to condemn the Kurdish-backed Peace and Democracy Party for causing “disturbances” and allegedly failing to assist the central authorities while they were “striving to solve the problems of the needy, disregarding their origin as Kurds”. They continued to stop aid trucks destined for PDP-controlled municipalities, which had been organised by various NGOs and civic initiatives, confiscating their contents under the pretext that they might fall into the “wrong hands”.

So, while the second earthquake struck on a different fault line, it once more revealed the state’s own fault line running deep across Turkey - official anti-Kurd chauvinism, fuelled by negligence and incompetence.