As the death toll from Monday’s devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria crossed the 11,000 mark, sorrow turned into anger at President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and its mismanagement of the rescue efforts.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the final death toll could be more than 20,000. It has also been estimated that as many as 23 million people across Turkey and Syria could have been affected by the tragedy. But Ovgun Ahmet Ercan, an earthquake expert, has estimated in an interview that “180,000 people or more may be trapped under the rubble, nearly all of them dead.”
The helplessness of survivors was best expressed in the words of a man pleading for help: “My wife doesn’t speak Turkish and I can’t see very well ... We have to check all the faces. We need help.”
Many Turks accuse Erdogan’s government of reacting too slowly to the quake.
“If there is one person responsible for this, it is Erdogan,” said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey’s main opposition party.
Anger among ordinary Turks is also mounting over an “earthquake tax” levied by the Erdogan government in the wake of a massive quake in 1999 that killed more than 17,000 people.
The estimated $4.6 billion in tax revenue was meant to have been spent on disaster prevention and developing emergency services. Questions about the tax are asked every time there is an earthquake in Turkey. But Erdogan, who fashions himself as a latter-day Ottoman Caliph, has never publicly explained how the money is spent.
On May 14, Erdogan will go ahead with an election where the main opposition is an alliance of centre-left and right-wing parties, known as the “Table of Six,” led by Kilicdaroglu, who is expected to be the opposition presidential candidate.
In a video posted on Twitter, Kilicdaroglu vowed not to meet Erdogan “on any platform,” accusing his government of conducting “PR work” since the quake.
Erdogan, facing one of the toughest electoral races in his two decades in power, announced 90 days of emergency rule effective from Wednesday. It allows him to take swift security and financial measures in the areas stricken by the disaster.
Officials familiar with the discussions said Erdogan planned to hold the vote straight after May 14 as originally planned. They asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. The people said the emergency actions could also end before the full 90 days.
On Wednesday, Erdogan visited some of the quake-hit regions, home to populations that tend to vote for his AK Party and are essential to his success at the polls.
Erdogan called the earthquake the “biggest disaster not only in the history of the republic but also in the world.” Perhaps he had not heard of the Great Alaskan quake of 1964, the Chilean disaster of 1960, not to mention the earthquake in Pakistan in 2005 that killed 80,000. But being number one has a flavour of its own.
Bloomberg Economics estimates public spending after the quakes may be equivalent to 5.5% of the gross domestic product over two years and may influence the outcome of the next elections.
“If the disaster response is strong, the ruling administration will be rewarded likely in the polls,” said Tim Ash, emerging markets strategist at BlueBay Asset Management. “If it is poor, the opposite.”
Erdogan called several political rivals after the earthquakes, telling them the country should transcend political differences to overcome the devastation. He didn’t call the head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party — Kemal Kilicdaroglu — who has said the country was ill-prepared for the disaster and blamed Erdogan personally.
“I don’t need to be in solidarity with Erdogan and his palace,” Kilicdaroglu said in a video posted on Twitter after he visited the quake zone. He accused the government of corruption and squandering taxpayers’ money earmarked for preparing for such disasters.
The U.K. Guardian reports that traffic to Twitter is being restricted in Turkey. It was being used as a channel to communicate the whereabouts of people trapped in the rubble. Still, Turkish police said they detained at least four people they accused of spreading misinformation on the platform and spreading panic about the quake.
When the Turkish state cracks down, it isn’t very merciful. If in doubt, ask the Kurds who live as an occupied people under Ankara’s boot and have sought asylum in Canada.
