As Turks look at collapsed buildings, anger at government grows By Fariba Nawa Contributor February 13, 2023 - ISTANBUL

With hopes scant of pulling many more survivors from the rubble of last week’s devastating earthquake, Turkish citizens are expressing growing anger and resentment toward the government, demanding accountability for shoddy construction practices they say cost thousands of lives and for its delayed response to the disaster.

Relief efforts pivoted urgently over the weekend to feeding and housing survivors on both sides of the Turkey-Syria border even as the death toll climbed steadily, passing 36,000 on Monday. The 7.8 magnitude quake Feb. 6 and strong aftershocks that followed constituted the deadliest natural disaster in the region in 80 years.

In Turkey, criticism of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party mounted. Critics said warnings about the quake-prone area were ignored, allowing a rush of construction by companies that, to maximize profits, dodged building codes that could have prevented the sudden collapse of entire buildings. 

As of Monday, Turkish authorities said they had arrested 12 property developers, issued arrest warrants for 114 people, and launched 134 investigations, but government critics were insistent that more needed to be done to curb corruption, mismanagement, and impunity.

“Buildings should not have collapsed like that. And when they did, why wasn’t the army called on and helicopters used immediately to get rescue workers to save those under the collapsed buildings?” asks Guzide Diker, an activist whose family lost their homes in the quake in Malatya.

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