World

 

 

Turkey's most devastating earthquake since 1939 has raised big questions about whether such a large-scale tragedy could have been avoided and whether President Erdogan's government could have done more to save lives.

 

With elections on the horizon, his future is on the line after 20 years in power and his pleas for national unity have gone unheeded.

 

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has admitted shortcomings in the response, but he appeared to blame fate on a visit to one disaster zone: "Such things have always happened. It's part of destiny's plan."

 

Turkey lies on two fault lines and has earthquake building codes dating back more than 80 years. But last Monday's double earthquake was far more intense than anything seen since 1939. The first quake registered magnitude 7.8 at 04:17, followed by another of 7.5 dozens of miles away.

 

It required a massive rescue operation spread across 10 of Turkey's 81 provinces.

 

But it took time for the response to build and some villages could not be reached for days. More than 30,000 people from the professional and voluntary sector eventually arrived, along with teams from many other countries.

 

More than 6,000 buildings collapsed and workers from Turkey's Afad disaster authority were themselves caught up in the earthquakes.

 

Those initial hours were critical but roads were damaged and search and rescue teams struggled to get through until day two or day three.

 

Turkey has more experience of earthquakes than almost any other country but the founder of the main volunteer rescue group believes this time, politics got in the way.

 

After the last major earthquake in August 1999, it was the armed forces who led the operation but the Erdogan government has sought to curb their power in Turkish society.

 

"All over the world, the most organised and logistically powerful organisations are the armed forces; they have enormous means in their hands," said the head of Akut foundation, Nasuh Mahruki. "So you have to use this in a disaster."

 

Instead, Turkey's civil disaster authority now has the role, with a staff of 10-15,000, helped by non-government groups such as Akut, which has 3,000 volunteers.

 

The potential rescue effort was now far bigger than in 1999, Mr Mahruki said, but with the military left out of the planning it had to wait for an order from the government: "This created a delay in the start of rescue and search operations."

 

President Erdogan has accepted that search efforts were not as fast as the government wanted, despite Turkey having the "largest search and rescue team in the world right now".

 

For years, Turks have been warned of the potential of a big earthquake but few expected it to be along the East Anatolian fault, which stretches across south-eastern Turkey, because most of the larger tremors have hit the fault in the north.

 

Critics such as opposition CHP party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu argue after 20 years in power President Erdogan's government has not "prepared the country for the earthquakes".

 

One big question is what happened to the large sums collected through two "earthquake solidarity taxes" created after the 1999 quake. The funds were meant to make buildings resistant to earthquakes.

 

One of the taxes, paid to this day by mobile phone operators and radio and TV, has brought some 88bn lira (£3.8bn; $4.6bn) into state coffers. It was even hiked to 10% two years ago. But the government has never fully explained where the money has been spent.

 

Urban planners have complained that rules have not been observed in earthquake zones and highlight a 2018 government amnesty that meant violations of the building code could be swept away with a fine, and left some six million buildings unchanged.

 

President Erdogan has called for unity and solidarity, denouncing critics of the disaster response as dishonourable.

 

But after 20 years in power, first as prime minister and then as an increasingly authoritarian, elected president, he leads a highly polarised country.

 

"We have come to this point because of his politics," said Mr Kilicdaroglu.

 

Campaigning for elections expected in May has not yet begun but he leads one of six opposition parties poised to announce a unified candidate in a bid to bring down the president.

 

Mr Erdogan's hopes of unifying the country ahead of those elections are likely to fall on deaf ears.