President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ruled Turkey for 20 years. To stay in power, he promised to rebuild the country after the earthquake. But many voters blame him for making the disaster so great.
2003: Erdogan becomes the Prime Minister of Turkey. The previous year, his party, the Justice and Development Party, had won a landslide election victory.
At that time, the population was angry with the previous government, which was accused of betraying the victims of A.S earthquake in 1999which cost more than 17,000 people their lives.
In addition, the economy was in dire straits.
2023: Erdogan is running for re-election as president. At the same time, the population was shaken by the devastating earthquake, which claimed the lives of at least 50,000 people.
The Turkish economy is once again experiencing a deep crisis.
– You feel that history is repeating itself, but this time the indignation is directed at Erdogan, Turkish media commentator Gurkan Ozturan explains to VG.
It takes place on the election date
After the disaster, there was speculation as to whether Erdogan would postpone the elections. But Erdogan insists that the elections be held on May 14, the Turkish newspaper writes freedoms.
– The time is approaching. The Turkish people will do whatever it takes on May 14th. No honor for those who run away with empty words, Erdogan said on Wednesday.
Elections for the new National Assembly and president were initially expected to take place in June, but in January Erdoğan announced they would take place in May.
– There is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the conduct of the elections. About 200,000 are missing. There are millions homeless, many of them internally displaced within Turkey. Where will they vote? How will it count? Ozturan points out that there are many unanswered questions.
Building regulations failed
One of Erdogan’s biggest problems is that the building regulations he introduced himself have clearly failed.
During reporting trips in the two most affected cities, Antakya and Kahramanmaraş, VG witnessed how new buildings that should have been insured against earthquakes collapsed and collapsed like a house of cards.
Reports revealed that there was a lot of sand in the concrete. Pebbles from riverbeds and shells from the sea floor have also been uncovered. Elsewhere, inadequate rebar was used.
Ahead of the 2018 elections, which Erdoğan won and gave him expanded powers, the AKP government gave developers the opportunity to buy exemptions from the regulations.
The goal was to speed up new construction. It ended in tragedy.
Controls the media image
When the VG spoke to the survivors in Kahramanmaraş, who desperately searched for missing relatives in the chaos of death and broken concrete, the anger was high against the government.
The anger is enormous. Even larger now than it was after 1999, because the scale is much larger. Ozturan explains that for two decades we have been promised that the level of construction is better, that the emergency response will be better.
– At the same time, Erdogan has complete control over the media. He explained that they highlight what the government is actually achieving, and overlook all weaknesses.
Erdogan personally visited the affected areas and spoke to the wounded in hospitals.
Some miracle babies, newborns rescued from destroyed buildings, were taken on his plane to the capital.
Reconstruction promises
The news agency wrote that Erdogan’s election campaign will focus on the fact that he is the right man to rebuild the country. Reuters.
In a speech to members of parliament on Wednesday, Erdogan said new building regulations would be introduced again.
But it also promises to go further. New cities must be built so that they are earthquake resistant. The plan is called “Turkey’s Risk Shield”.
Erdogan is asking the opposition to support the plan, but the leader of the Republican People’s Party, the largest opposition party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has repeatedly blamed Erdogan for the scale of the disaster.
– The opposition will use the earthquake against Erdogan, while he will try to show the voters that he is the only one who can clean things up, Ozturan says.
The Turkish expert, who follows developments in his homeland from exile in Germany, notes that eight of the 11 affected provinces were areas where Erdogan’s party won a majority last time.
– It will be interesting to see how they vote now.
The opposition, a coalition of six parties, has not yet decided on a presidential candidate.
Negotiations begin Thursday. Hürriyet writes. The Republican People’s Party is the largest party, but it is unclear if party leader Kilicdaroglu will run.
One of the most popular candidates is the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, but he may be banned by a politically motivated indictment for insulting the authorities.
When Erdoğan won the elections for the first time, he also came from the position of mayor of Istanbul, and he himself had served a politically motivated prison sentence that was supposed to keep him out of politics.
– It’s another case of “history repeating itself”, but it’s not new. Imamoglu and Erdogan have been compared for several years. But I don’t think Imamoglu is running now. It may be too early for him to become president, Ozturan believes.
note: One Turkish opinion poll He points out that there is currently no significant impact on how people vote after the earthquake. It comes from a Yetkin report by independent media, but there is uncertainty as to how true this is.
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