The survivors of the violent earthquake consider themselves abandoned by the State. Oppositions and experts denounce corruption in the construction sector after the collapse of thousands of buildings as well as Erdogan’s lack of anticipation.
Unpreparedness, corruption, muzzled criticism… Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is under fire from criticism, after the earthquake of Monday February 6 which killed at least 35,000 people in Turkey and Syria. The survivors feel abandoned by the state and a few months before the presidential election, the opposition rushes into the breach to denounce the power in place.
>> Earthquake in Turkey and Syria: the latest live information
The Turkish president is playing his political future here, while elections are scheduled for May, unless he decides to upset the calendar because of the magnitude of the earthquake. Recep Tayyip Erdogan probably remembers that the mismanagement of the authorities during the last big earthquake in Turkey, in 1999, had led his own party to victory three years later. The Prime Minister at the time, Bülent Ecevit, had been the subject of strong criticism for having neglected relief to the populations.
Franceinfo takes stock of the criticisms aimed at the Turkish head of state, in power for almost twenty years.
Because the emergency services were slow to intervene in places
“Where is the state? We don’t have a government, it hasn’t come here. There are no tents, people live on the ground or in their cars”, testified a victim interviewed by France Télévisions, a few days after the earthquake. AThen the temperatures are freezing in the region, hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless. In Adiyaman, Mehmet Yildirim assured AFP that he had not seen “person”, “no state, no police, no soldiers” Before “2 p.m. on the second day”34 hours after the first shock, accusing the authorities of having left the population “left to herself”.
Rescue “not going as fast as expected”Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan admitted for the first time on Friday, four days after the earthquake. “The destruction affected so many buildings (…) that unfortunately, we were unable to carry out our interventions as quickly as hoped”, said the head of state visiting Adiyaman. He had already recognized on Wednesday “gaps” in the response to the earthquake, ensuring that it was “impossible to be prepared for such a disaster”.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also suspected of favoritism, “with aid that would go primarily to AKP municipalities”his party, according to the researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), Dorothée Schmid, interviewed by the Sunday newspaper (article reserved for subscribers). “All the help goes to the other cities”, accuse survivors in the Hatay region, considered rebel by the Turkish authorities. Analyst Gönül Tol, who was in Turkey at the time of the earthquake and who lost loved ones in the tragedy, felt the anger there was palpable. “I can’t believe he (Erdogan) didn’t feel it because the level of frustration, the anger, I saw it with my own eyes. I’m sure it will have an impact”assures AFP the director of the Turkey program at theMiddle East Institute, based in the United States.
Because power tries to muzzle criticism
After the earthquake, Turkish social networks were inundated with criticism of the Turkish authorities, until a very noticeable cut off of access to Twitter for a dozen hours. IThe main Turkish mobile phone providers have been affected. The AFP journalists on site were unable to connect to the social network, which nevertheless remained accessible via VPN access masking the location of the user.
If access to Twitter was restored on Thursday, the president of the social democratic party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu strongly denounced this blockage. “This foolish government has blocked communications on social networks. The result is a drop in calls for help. We know what you are trying to hide. We await your explanation”, he accused on the social network. “Can it get any more diabolical than that?” added Meral Aksener, general president of the Good Party and member of the “Table of Six”, a coalition of six anti-Erdogan opposition movements, quoted by Le Figaro.
“Personalities who expressed themselves on social networks have been arrested. There is a very strong hold on public debate”, also explained the head of the contemporary Turkey and Middle East program at Ifri, Dorothée Schmid, on franceinfo. Thursday, February 9, the Turkish police had arrested a dozen people for publications on social networks. “If we have learned one thing from the past twenty years, it is that the most important thing for power is image. The country can burn well, the main thing for them is not to lose face” , also tackled Mehmet Y. Yilmaz, columnist on the T24 news site, also quoted by the Figaro.
Because his centralized regime is accused of having weakened civil society
For twenty years and the coming to power of Erdogan, the institutions and the associative fabric have weakened, denounces Gönül Tol. During the previous earthquake (which killed more than 17,000 people in 1999), civil society worked tirelessly to help the victims, explains the analyst specializing in Turkey. “Twenty years later, we are no better offshe said to AFP. Erdogan not only weakened state institutions, he also weakened Turkish civil society.”
Other experts denounce the authoritarian management of the country by the president. According to Dorothée Schmid, the centralization of power by Erdogan has also reduced the capacity of local authorities to organize aid closer to the ground. “Erdogan was taken aback: it is an increasingly authoritarian and increasingly centralized regime, so in situations like that, there is not a very good ability to react”explains the researcher at Ifri on BFMTV. “It’s the president who decides everything”she adds, also denouncing the sidelining of the army.
Because corruption is at the heart of suspicion
For several days, the responsibility of real estate developers has been pointed out. AT the image of Mehmet Yasar Coskun, the builder of the “Rönesans” (Renaissance) hotel, arrested at Istanbul airport on Friday as he tried to flee. The eight-storey building he built ten years ago in Antakya, southern Turkey, collapsed, like thousands of other buildings. In the same vein, on Sunday, three people were imprisoned, seven arrested and 114 are still wanted, announced the Turkish Minister of Justice, Bekir Bozdag. A total of 134 investigations were launched.
According to the president of Transparency International Turkey, these promoters are not the only ones responsible. “The construction industry in Turkey is plagued by corruption: there are greedy builders but also authorities who do not enforce the rules”says Oya Özarslan, quoted by BFMTV.
A statement shared by the opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu. According to the daily Le Monde (article reserved for subscribers), he denounces, in hollow, the relations between these construction companies and the government. In recent years, Turkey has adopted a series of standards and regulations modeled on those of earthquake-prone California, and regularly revised – the last time in 2018. But according to engineers and architects interviewed this week by AFP, most are ignored by builders. “On paper, the standards are respected, with contracts entrusted to private companies in charge of controlling them”, explains Istanbul architect Aykut Köksal to AFP. But, according to him, amicable negotiations between the two parties often leave the entrepreneur too much leeway.