In Turkey, many builders would like to be swallowed up by the earth. One of the greatest cataclysms of the century struck its tower blocks two Mondays ago. And these, about their owners or tenants. There are already, officially, 31,643 deaths from the earthquake. The trauma and pain are unspeakable.
For this reason, some builders have been stopped when they tried to take a flight to Montenegro or Georgia. One of them claimed: “I have a clear conscience. Only 5 of 44 have sunk.
Others have had their passports withdrawn. The vice president, Fuat Oktay, speaks of legal actions against 131 of them, most of them already brought to justice. The list grows with each passing day.
But some see a political ruse to divert popular outrage towards the most visible part. Turk's heads.
The fact is that the stench of corruption is now added to that of tens of thousands of corpses still under the rubble. And the shock wave threatens President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Earthquakes are carried by the devil, and three months from an election the current one could not leave a puppet with a head. Although the responsibility is shared with governments, town halls, engineers and architects. The latter, as supervisors, are beginning to appear on the legal radar as well.
Twenty-five thousand buildings have also collapsed on a well-oiled system, not very different from that of other Mediterranean countries – with less seismic risk – where construction is the engine of the economy.
Erdogan is accused of not having eliminated a modus operandi inherent to the Turkish Republic, which since its founding has proclaimed 13 large amnesties for builders who violated the law, in exchange for a fine.
The last one, in 2018, had the support of the opposition. In all honesty, it is the owners who exert the greatest pressure in favor of regularization. A barrage of votes that nobody wants to lose. But a fraud is a fraud.
After the great earthquake of 1999, the Turkish anti-seismic regulation is strict. The problem is that more than half of the real estate park does not comply with it. This is quite similar to the ceiling that the average Turk can afford, in a country where one in three salaries does not reach 500 euros.
It should not be forgotten that in the 1980s and 1990s, the recurring Turkish word in the Western press was gecekondu: the shanty town built overnight. Since then, the gecekondu have been eradicated and the subsidized houses built by the public agency, Toki, seem to have complied with the anti-seismic regulation, since they have withstood.
The problem is in the private sector, in close collusion with the municipal power – of various colors – and with Erdogan's circle, in which the builders of the Black Sea weigh heavily.
These days, many engineers have detected structural failures – or steel savings – in buildings that have collapsed with the naked eye. The vast majority are from before 1999 –and have more than five floors–, but in some high-profile cases, no.
It has also been denounced that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) would have handpicked like-minded –and unsuitable– people into key organizations, previously in the Kemalist orbit. See the Red Crescent or other cooperation or civil protection and rescue, both public (AFAD) and private (AKUT).
This quake, which has affected the AKP strongholds the most, would be a golden opportunity for the opposition. But the face of him with more pull - in case he can appear - the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, has a problem. He is a builder, son of a builder.
It should be remembered that the mismanagement of the 1999 earthquake swept away the parties of the time and paved the way for the emergence of Erdogan's AKP. This then rebuilt some of the most affected cities, such as Sakarya, with first-class infrastructure, gaining loyalty from the vote. But now there is no time.
Whatever happens, many fear that the elections, scheduled for May 14, will be postponed until the legal limit, at the end of June. In the best case.
