Earthquake Kills More Than 500 in Turkey and Syria

[Canoeyawl]

Those poor people...

(and I can't get Michael Flynn out of my head...)

[Nicholas Carey]

The one saving grace might be this:

Erdoğan's party (and Erdoğan) came to power in the wake of the 1999 earthquake that offed 17,000 people, and the government's botched response to that 'quake. On the promise that they'd improve the building codes and improve enforcement, etc. so that these sorts of disasters wouldn't happen again.

And people have apparently been paying "earthquake taxes" for the last 20+ years intended to accomplish the above.

Which has not materialized. I do have some suspicions about where the monies might have migrated.

And there's a general election in June: Erdoğan and crew might not be long in power.

[skuthorp]

They'll call out the military…… 'retirement' for Erdogan might not be an attractive prospect

[Nicholas Carey]

They'll call out the military…… 'retirement' for Erdogan might not be an attractive prospect

The Turkish military historically see themselves as the protectors of Turkey's secularism and of Attatürk's reforms. And to that end, they tend to exercise their trump card when things look to be going off the rails, and set them right-ish:

From Wikipedia,

Turkish Armed Forces see themselves as the guardians of the secular and unitary nature of the Republic along with Atatürk's reforms and have intervened by taking over the government three times: in 1960, in 1971 and in 1980.

No guarantee that Erdogan would get support from the military. And if he tried to pull a Donald and overturn election results, probably unlikely.

[Odette]

It is so sad. Pray for that countries

[George.]

Erdogan already trying to deflect the blame.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-64615349

Officials in Turkey say 113 arrest warrants have been issued in connection with the construction of buildings that collapsed in Monday's earthquake.


Turkish police have already taken at least 12 people into custody, including building contractors.


...


More arrests are expected - but the action will by seen by many as an attempt to divert overall blame for the disaster.


For years, experts warned that many new buildings in Turkey were unsafe due to endemic corruption and government policies.



Those policies allowed so-called amnesties for contractors who swerved building regulations, in order to encourage a construction boom - including in earthquake-prone regions.

Just like Brazil, when farmers bribe government officials to get permits to deforest where it isn't allowed. When caught, the third-tier government inspectors who got 10% of the bribe end up in prison, while the farms that deforested may or may not pay a "fine".

[George.]

This disaster is particularly horrible. I can't bear to think about it. Other disasters kill people quickly. Here we have tens of thousands of people trapped under rubble, alone, agonizing for days.

And then there is Syria. No one talks about Syria. No plentiful rescue crews and emergency care there. Who knows how many are dead and dying in Syria.

[JayInOz]

A lot of talk about Syria George but it seems no one knows the best way to help. One Syrian yesterday said that this isn't about war or politics, it's about people who need help.
And the ABC here are talking about Turkiye- pronouncing it torkeeya. Must be the latest thing. I've never heard them call it that before this last week. JayInOz

[dutchpp]

This disaster is particularly horrible. I can't bear to think about it. Other disasters kill people quickly. Here we have tens of thousands of people trapped under rubble, alone, agonizing for days.

And then there is Syria. No one talks about Syria. No plentiful rescue crews and emergency care there. Who knows how many are dead and dying in Syria.

There's a large Syrian refugee community in my country, these people try to arrange help to their relatives but it's very difficult, the abject regime of Assad is frustrating a lot of the emergency help initiatives. The regime wants the emergency goods to be sent via the official Syrian channels so that they can steal it and sell it on the black market.
Most of the Syrian casualties will be dead by now.
Total deaths around 28.000, the official number of Syrian deaths is approximately 3500. Experts expect that the total number of deaths will double.

[George.]

The regime wants the emergency goods to be sent via the official Syrian channels so that they can steal it and sell it on the black market.

And get the credit for what little trickles through...

[Breakaway]

Horrible.
There is an enclave of Turkish people in my community. One family we were close with when my kids and theirs were young. I ran into Ismet yesterday, and he js just despondent.

Kevin


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