Turkish opposition accuses authorities of dire consequences of earthquake

A six-party opposition coalition has stepped up attacks on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his failure to deal with the devastating February 6 earthquake. The opposition links the huge number of victims and destruction with the ineffective actions of the authorities.

One of its leaders and a possible presidential candidate, the head of the Republican People’s Party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said on February 8 that the catastrophic consequences of the earthquake “are the result of the planned enrichment” of officials and businessmen associated with the ruling party. He stressed that he would not “conduct a dialogue with Erdogan, his palace and those beneficiary gangs that were part of this system.”

Sentenced to two years and seven months for insulting the election commission, fellow party member Kılıçdaroğlu, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu (the sentence has not entered into force), launched a campaign to criticize the ruling party on Twitter. But access to this social network was limited on February 9th. Turkish police have already arrested five people and detained 18 for spreading “provocative posts” on social media. Imamoglu then said that the restrictions were introduced so as not to create a negative background for Erdogan’s trip to the earthquake zone and such steps reflect the weakness of the authorities. On February 10, access to Twitter was restored.

Erdogan himself, speaking in one of the epicenters of the earthquake, the city of Kahramanmarash, promised to restore the destroyed within one year. Amid accusations of incompetence and corruption by the opposition, the Turkish authorities are taking steps to investigate the abuses of developers who, in the pursuit of profit, neglected the requirements for earthquake resistance of buildings.