Turkey and Syria major earthquakes

[runa]

At least 2 800 people dead - and probably more, according to CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/05/europe/earthquake-hits-turkey-intl-hnk/index.html

Such a tragedy.

[karbatal]

It’s horrible. And the amount of victims is expected to be very high. Not to mention that it has affected the poor people of Aleppo. 

[smirnoff_ice]

14 hours ago, karbatal said:

It’s horrible. And the amount of victims is expected to be very high. Not to mention that it has affected the poor people of Aleppo. 

Turkey is home and this is very sad. Numbers will go up by a lot as it is a huge area where the earthquake hit. So cold at the moment as well 

[Paul]

Its truly shocking and so sad to watch all the devastation and people that have lost everything, including loved ones. It makes me feel so helpless.

[Butter9]

I saw some of the footages and they are truly shocking . So sad for this tragedy .

[karbatal]

3 hours ago, smirnoff_ice said:

Turkey is home and this is very sad. Numbers will go up by a lot as it is a huge area where the earthquake hit. So cold at the moment as well 

I am deeply sorry 

[elijah]

Horrible! Turkey had a similar earthquake in the late 90ties... Geographically especially Turkey, but also Greece, is on seismitic areas... I ve read that there is also problems with how the buildings were build (lack of control) as some are practically ruins while buildings in the neighbourhood are still in tact. Its horrid, because many ppl are dead.

[runa]

More than 6000 people dead apparently.

[karbatal]

1 hour ago, elijah said:

Horrible! Turkey had a similar earthquake in the late 90ties... Geographically especially Turkey, but also Greece, is on seismitic areas... I ve read that there is also problems with how the buildings were build (lack of control) as some are practically ruins while buildings in the neighbourhood are still in tact. Its horrid, because many ppl are dead.

It’s strange that buildings don’t have more control in that area if it’s a sismic one. Bulgaria for example have more controls than Spain regarding earthquakes because here in Spain we have very very few sismic areas 

[Mamba]

Sometimes I doubt that God exists. 

[sotos8]

Ντωμεταξύ στην #Συρία μετά από 40 ώρες κάτω από τα ερείπια #σεισμος

pic.twitter.com/dAIoO6tdu9

— Kostas Anastopoulos (@KonAnastopoulos) February 7, 2023

[jonski43]

14 hours ago, elijah said:

Horrible! Turkey had a similar earthquake in the late 90ties... Geographically especially Turkey, but also Greece, is on seismitic areas... I ve read that there is also problems with how the buildings were build (lack of control) as some are practically ruins while buildings in the neighbourhood are still in tact. Its horrid, because many ppl are dead.

Given that a castle that has stood for over 2200 years collapsed, I think it's the magnitude of the earthquake. Sounds like even if there were controls in place it would have made little difference. 

[Lolo]

 

this is beyond tragic, what a catastrophe! I sincerely hope they can find more survivors today and that authorities will have a serious look at future construction plans and earthquake safety for housing. 

[ULIZOS]

This is horrific. 

[ULIZOS]

22 hours ago, jonski43 said:

Given that a castle that has stood for over 2200 years collapsed, I think it's the magnitude of the earthquake. Sounds like even if there were controls in place it would have made little difference. 

That's not necessarily true. This type of devastation doesn't happen in Japan where there have been even more powerful earthquakes, even recently. 

As another example, there was a devastating earthquake in Mexico in 1985 and at the end of the day so, so, so many people died (5,000–45,000, nobody knows for sure because the government censored this data) because of obscene corruption at every level in the government. There was a horrifying earthquake in 2017 on the same exact day as the 1985 earthquake and there was comparatively little damage because the city has since taken building codes a lot more serious. The few buildings that did collapse were older buildings (before 1985) that were never reinforced / renovated. 

[Lolo]

On 2/9/2023 at 7:47 AM, ULIZOS said:

There was a horrifying earthquake in 2017 on the same exact day as the 1985 earthquake and there was comparatively little damage because the city has since taken building codes a lot more serious.

Watch how nothing of the sort will happen in . 

[runa]

Numbers are getting higher and higher every hours. Tragic. 

[Jazzy Jan]

So heart breaking and tragic.   The loss of innocent lives and the devastation this earthquake has caused.  

[promise to try]

I´m sure more than 50.000 peopla have died. It´s so sad how life changes in one second and that´s it, you are dead.I don´t know if there´s a building strong enough to continue standing up after a 7.8 earthquake, but some of them are still there, so I guess the cheapest ones are the ones that are fall down

[ULIZOS]

On 2/10/2023 at 7:51 AM, Lolo said:

Watch how nothing of the sort will happen in . 

The news is starting. This is so fucking upsetting. 

Videos show Turkey's Erdogan boasted letting builders avoid earthquake codes

ISTANBUL — As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan struggles to defend his response to last Monday's devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake, videos from a few years back have emerged showing him hailing some of the housing projects that crumbled, killing thousands of people.

Critics say contractors were allowed to skip crucial safety regulations, increasing their profits but putting residents at risk.

The videos have fueled public outrage over slow efforts to help residents in the aftermath of the massive earthquake — the world's deadliest in over a decade — that killed more than 35,000 people in Turkey and neighboring Syria, and left many injured and without a home, food or heating in the middle of winter.

In one video, taken during a campaign stop ahead of Turkey's March 2019 local elections, Erdogan listed some of his government's top achievements — including new housing for the city of Kahramanmaras, also known as Maras, near the epicenter of last week's quake.

"We solved the problem of 144,156 citizens of Maras with zoning amnesty," Erdogan said, using his term for the construction amnesties handed out to allow contractors to ignore the safety codes that had been put on the books specifically to make apartment blocks, houses and office buildings more resistant to earthquakes.

Engineers and architects say the lack of safety features designed to absorb the shock of earthquakes likely contributed to the soaring death toll.

In another 2019 campaign stop, in southern Turkey's Hatay province, Erdogan was again eager to tout the housing his government was creating.

"We have solved the problems of 205,000 citizens of Hatay with zoning peace," he said, using another name for the amnesties being used to facilitate construction practices that could leave buildings unable to withstand earthquakes.

The videos were reported by Turkish news sites such as Duvar and Diken, and have circulated widely.

Duvar cited a senior Istanbul city official, Bugra Gokce, who gave a breakdown of the tens of thousands of building amnesty certificates granted before the 2018 general election in 10 provinces struck by the earthquake. They included more than 40,000 amnesty certificates in the hard-hit Gaziantep province, the official said.

The amnesty meant that some builders had to pay a fine but their construction projects could go forward if they didn't meet code restrictions, according to Turkish media reports.

[karbatal]

He is a soulless dictator. Nobody is surprised. Turkey was already a far far worse country than 10 years ago before the earthquake. He is simply useless.

[Lolo]

On 2/14/2023 at 8:11 AM, karbatal said:

He is a soulless dictator. Nobody is surprised. Turkey was already a far far worse country than 10 years ago before the earthquake. He is simply useless.

I really hoped that maybe this could ‚help‘ bring Erdogan and Assad down. Maybe a tiny positive development amidst all this devastation. But they will spin the narrative in their favor as always. I expect Erdogan to shift the blame on EU somehow. 

[elijah]

38 minutes ago, Lolo said:

I really hoped that maybe this could ‚help‘ bring Erdogan and Assad down. Maybe a tiny positive development amidst all this devastation. But they will spin the narrative in their favor as always. I expect Erdogan to shift the blame on EU somehow. 

On this particular case, its simply absurd to think he will find a way to put the blame on EU. However I wouldn't put it past him. Maybe he ll claim that EU should be held responsible, because it hasn't accepted Turkey and as a result Turkey hasn't adopted the relevant EU legislation, dealing with building business and its control? But I shouldn't give him any ideas. I strongly dislike him, because he turned Turkey from a comparatively free democratic country into a full fledged authoritarian state.

[karbatal]

The geopolitical situation of Turkey makes me wonder what would happen if Erdogan falls . Could it be another Egypt situation where more religious people take control and cut liberties? What do you think @elijah?

[elijah]

9 hours ago, karbatal said:

The geopolitical situation of Turkey makes me wonder what would happen if Erdogan falls . Could it be another Egypt situation where more religious people take control and cut liberties? What do you think @elijah?

Hmmm. Erdogan has already cut many liberties, so I couldn’t see it getting worse in that regard. I m not familar with Egypt, but in Turkey there is a relatively strong tradition with secularism, dating back to Ataturk, who is from Thessaloniki and modernised Turkey, inspired by the short progress from newly independent states from Ottoman yoke Bulgaria and Greece. He practically established what we see today as Turkey, denouncing the Ottoman Empire, including pointing out the backwardness of Islam. Since then the military have been the protector of secularism in Turkey as the majority of the military personnel have graduated in the West. It’s no coincidence that the putsch against Erdogan some years ago was organised by the military. 
The problem until Erdogan was the cultural clash between the pro western Western Turkey with Istanbul and the conservative Anatolia. Erdogan pretty much undid the work of Aataturk promoting Islam, overemphasising the religious upbringing and satanising the west. It’s really hard to predict who and what will lead Turkey post Erdogan. However if there is a Muslim majority state that could be liberal and pro western, it’s Turkey. I think in the worst case scenario if it reverts to being a parliamentary republic and not presidential it could be quite liberal and for sure much more than at the time of Erdogan. I don’t think the religious fanatics are that many or much influential and that many liberal people there, especially in Istanbul, would accept Turkey being ruled as Islamic state. Having said that, Turkey must focus on educating Anatolia if it wants to fully embrace western ideas.

[karbatal]

2 hours ago, elijah said:

Hmmm. Erdogan has already cut many liberties, so I couldn’t see it getting worse in that regard. I m not familar with Egypt, but in Turkey there is a relatively strong tradition with secularism, dating back to Ataturk, who is from Thessaloniki and modernised Turkey, inspired by the short progress from newly independent states from Ottoman yoke Bulgaria and Greece. He practically established what we see today as Turkey, denouncing the Ottoman Empire, including pointing out the backwardness of Islam. Since then the military have been the protector of secularism in Turkey as the majority of the military personnel have graduated in the West. It’s no coincidence that the putsch against Erdogan some years ago was organised by the military. 
The problem until Erdogan was the cultural clash between the pro western Western Turkey with Istanbul and the conservative Anatolia. Erdogan pretty much undid the work of Aataturk promoting Islam, overemphasising the religious upbringing and satanising the west. It’s really hard to predict who and what will lead Turkey post Erdogan. However if there is a Muslim majority state that could be liberal and pro western, it’s Turkey. I think in the worst case scenario if it reverts to being a parliamentary republic and not presidential it could be quite liberal and for sure much more than at the time of Erdogan. I don’t think the religious fanatics are that many or much influential and that many liberal people there, especially in Istanbul, would accept Turkey being ruled as Islamic state. Having said that, Turkey must focus on educating Anatolia if it wants to fully embrace western ideas.

Thank you.