International

The Hand of God?

John Passant asks whether Turkey's Earthquake was a natural disaster or a criminal act.

In 45 seconds the earthquake in Turkey killed tens of thousands and destroyed the lives of millions.

Many in Turkey believe it is now time to bring to justice those responsible for this murder. Justice? Murder? How can people be talking in these terms about what was a natural disaster?

The earthquake was natural - its results were entirely man made.

As one Turk told the British weekly, Socialist Worker: "I live in an area of Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey, where the houses and flats are well built. When the earthquake hit, the only thing that happened was ornaments fell off our shelves. The poorest district in Istanbul, Avclar, is devastated."

The well off survived. The poor died. How can this be so? The answer lies in the bribery and corruption which is endemic in Turkey. And the fact that the Government devotes its resources to a war against the Kurds rather than safe housing.

Buildings can be built to survive earthquakes. Ahmet Mete is the head of the Earthquake Research Centre at Bosphorus University. He said, "Earthquakes don't kill. Buildings kill."

Turkey's construction regulations are strict enough for buildings which comply with them to survive earthquakes. So why did people die?

The Architects Chamber of Turkey says over half of all buildings in Turkey violate the building regulations. As a consequence they tend to collapse in an earthquake, killing people.

"We know how to build earthquake resistant houses," says Oktay Ekinci, the chairman of the Architects Chamber. "Yet Turkey is full of Kacak buildings." Kacak means buildings that do not comply with building regulations.

Building inspectors and politicians, when paid enough, turn a blind eye to inadequate materials and overbuilding.

Most Kacak buildings are in poor areas. The poor cannot afford safe housing. So the market, and corrupt politicians and builders, supply what these people can afford. That means shoddy buildings which fail to meet earthquake proof standards.

The consequence of this? Most of the deaths from the earthquake were in poor areas.

According to the Turkish Earthquake Centre all it would take to make every home in Turkey safe from earthquakes is one year's arms expenditure.

Turkey spends a quarter of its entire budget - about $10 billion annually - on arms. Most of this goes on a futile genocidal war against the Kurds.

If the Government's priority had been on safe housing rather than attempted genocide, most of those who died in the earthquake would be alive today. Scientists had been warning for two years of the likelihood of a large earthquake. The Government ignored the warnings. Instead they continued to pour money into the Army.

Turkey has 800,000 troops under arms - the biggest in Europe. Yet the Army was useless in dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake.

Well known British journalist Robert Fisk had this to say about the Turkish army. "They could 'cleanse' Kurdish towns around Diyarkabir, but they couldn't produce a single earthquake rescue unit around Istanbul. They could not even set up soup kitchens for Turkish civilians 24 hours after the earthquake. While neighbours shrieked for help to rescue loved ones in Aydin, hundreds of soldiers sat in their army trucks in a stationary convoy inside the town. They were not armed with picks and shovels and earth moving equipment, but with automatic rifles. How many more victims might have been rescued if the quarter million strong army fighting the Kurds in south east Turkey had been deployed to the devastated north west of their country?"

No earthquake rescue brigade, not even a single sniffer dog team. This was an army funded to kill Kurds, by a Government deliberately ignoring scientists' warnings.

The response of the West has been criminal. NATO could mobilise massive resources and waste billions on a war against Serbia.

Britain's New Labour initially offered $700,000. This from the same Government that spent ten times that amount each day in bombing the Balkans.

Australia has provided just $1.5m in aid.

The US sent a top general to discuss, not how to help those surviving, but how to ensure America could continue to use Turkey's bases against Iraq.

In Turkey there is grief. But there is also anger.

The day after the earthquake Hurriyet, Turkey's main liberal paper, ran the headline "Murderers" to describe the corrupt building companies and the politicians they have bribed.

The last word belongs to an ordinary Turk. Ercan Gunus lives in Adapazari. It was wrecked by the earthquake.

"The corrupt politicians who take bribes to allow these builders to make these wretched projects are guilty for all the deaths," he told journalists.

"Why did they let them go up? I hope they rot in hell."

John is a Canberra-based writer

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  Issue 30 contents

»	Ramos Horta Calls for Workers� Support
»	Sydney Unionists Forced to Leave Dili
»	TWU Questions Timor Action
»	SOCOG Called to Cancel Indonesian Contracts
»	Union Busters To Go Cyber
»	Not-So Aussie Post for Sydney 2000
»	Horror Tales - the Nights of the Living Dead
»	Asbestos Sufferer Bequests $30,000 To Union
»	Woodlawn Workers Edge Towards Justice
»	Telstra Shareholders Asked to Block Union-Busters
»	Reith Letter to be Revealed in Conspiracy Case
»	Shock: Tele Thumbs Up For New Years Eve Holiday
»	Tales From the Picket Line

»	Guest Report
»	Sport
»	Trades Hall
»	Piers Watch

»	League's Working Class Takeover
»	Proverb for the Cyber Age
»	Postcard from the Emu
»	Mind Your Language
»	The Other Young Speaker
»	Timor: A Call to Action
»	A Letter to Downer

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