Could this be reenacted in the not to distant future??

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8/23/99 -- 5:17 PM

Rage grows against Turkish state, army after earthquake

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IZMIT, Turkey (AP) - Necla Cakiroglu is outraged at the government she says has done nothing since an earthquake left her homeless and destitute, living in an abandoned lot with her husband and daughter.

``Nobody is helping at all,'' she said. ``The government could at least help ... pay our bills.''

She is not alone. On the streets of Turkey there is growing anger at the state and the military, which Turks once regarded as all powerful institutions that would always come to their aid in times of need.

Tens of thousands of homeless Turks are camped out on streets, in parks and on vacant lots. Most, like the Cakiroglus, have no insurance and are waiting to see if and when the government will come through.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's 4-month-old government may be able to recover if it can quickly put together a massive reconstruction effort to help repair quake damage, estimated to be as high as $20 billion, or one-tenth of Turkey's gross national product.

The disaster also killed at least 12,000 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

``If the reconstruction goes well, the government and the military may pull through together,'' said Alan Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. ``(But) the government and the military are going to have to perform mightily ... to erase this tarnish.''

The government already has taken its first steps, pressing for international financial aid to help foot a bill that is well beyond Turkey's means. It also has pushed aside three regional governors who were slow in responding to the disaster.

But pressure on the streets for more change is strong.

``We have seen one thing clearly,'' Ilnur Cevik, editor in chief of the Turkish Daily News, wrote in a commentary. ``Our state system is in shambles and the authorities simply cannot hide their incompetence.''

There are growing demands to sack Health Minister Osman Durmus, who said Turkey did not need foreign medical aid to cope with the disaster.

``Be quiet and go,'' the Radikal newspaper said in a headline directed at Durmus.

Even the revered military, the most respected of all Turkish institutions, has been criticized by those who say the relief efforts have been slow and disorganized.

``We hate to think what would have happened to us if this was a war situation,'' Cevik wrote.

The 7.4-magnitude earthquake devastated Turkey's industrial heartland last week, just a few months after the election of Ecevit, who is widely considered an effective and honest politician.

That image is likely to help protect him from the harshest criticisms, which have been leveled at contractors who built shoddy apartments that quickly collapsed in the earthquake. It is widely believed in Turkey that contractors were able to ignore building regulations by bribing officials.

Ecevit may be further shielded by the fact that the earthquake struck one of the richest and most Westernized areas of Turkey, a region that forms the bedrock of his secular Democratic Left Party.

Voters there, frustrated with unstable revolving-door governments and allegations of corruption, are unlikely to abandon Ecevit if reconstruction efforts move ahead.

``His being seen as Mr. Clean provides him with a very strong buffer,'' Makovsky said.

Still, municipalities run by the Islamic Virtue Party, the best-organized political party in the country, have sent food to the quake site, and the Islamic group could reap political gains from its efforts. The party is well known for the social welfare programs in the towns its controls.

``It's the classic environment in which Islamists have made gains,'' Makovsky said.

The military is bristling at reports that it was slow to mobilize and generals have said they offered to declare emergency rule. That suggestion was reportedly rejected by a government mindful of the three military coups since 1960.

The military says it now has 50,000 soldiers working on relief efforts.

``The military will be given the benefit of the doubt'' by the public, Makovsky said. ``There is a great will on the part of the Turks to believe in the heroism of the military.''

But now, there is anger.

In Izmit, Cakiroglu, her husband, Cihan, and their 3-year-old daughter are surviving on bread, jam, milk, olives and water that merchants and villagers - not government officials - have been delivering to the half-dozen families that share their grassy lot.

It is an image that is seen throughout the quake zone.

Cakiroglu, an office cleaner, says she hopes the government will help her rebuild her shattered life.

But her sister, Senur, also homeless, expects little aid.

``We are poor people,'' she said. ``Nobody cares about us.''

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), August 23, 1999

Answers

Make no mistakes, armies are not community servants. Their existance is to protect the country from enemies of the state.

When you say, could this be reenacted in the not to distant future do you mean will America's army act the same way if this had happened to us?

Why not? We have organizations dedicated to disaster relief. The army, again, is only in place to protect our borders.

I would think most forum goers here who believe in independency from central government would be aghast to think that they would have to rely on the Army for domestic relief from natural disasters.

But then again it's hard to bite the hand that feeds you isn't it?

-- (stars@stripes.!!!), August 23, 1999.

I am truly sorry for the misfortune of the victims of the recent Turkish earthquake. I hope that no one will misunderstand me. The fallacy that is apparent to me in this instance is that many people feel that government is there to aid, feed, nurture and comfort them,individually, maybe even personally. Anthropomorphic thinking, leading to feelings of betrayal, then anger, when expectations are dashed. Similar to feelings expressed on this forum about BIG BRO's responsibilities to US citizens, including y2k info. I am learning not to anthropomorphize. I think it may be useful to think more clearly about things in general.

-- Barb (awaltrip@telepath.com), August 23, 1999.

I also feel terrible for the victims of the earthquake. I have spent a few months in Turkey and emphathize with the people. I think the only thing we can do is what we have done--try to rush aid to them. At the same time, I realize that any supplies sent them now will be that much less for people in this country who are going to suffer tremendous need in just a few months.

There's nothing to be done, however, we have to help. And that is one of the reasons why humans form societies and governments--for mutual aid and protection in time of need.

We have gone from a small group society to a socoety in which there are global considerations. This is a VERY GOOD thing--completely proper.

My observation that we will have less for people in this country when push soon comes to shove is merely an observation...an irony...

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), August 23, 1999.

This is an example where less "government control" caused the loss of thousands of lives.

We may not like the fact that government controls so much of our lives, but we have building standards that protect us from the effects of eearthquakes. It may cost more, take more time and be a pain in the butt to follow these laws, but when the big one hits here in Seattle, I for one am glad that the law required my daughters school building to be re-inforced, and my home to be built up to government standards.

It is too bad the builders could not have done this on their own, but there will always be someone who puts profit ahead of safety, so the government has to step in and make them do the right thing.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), August 23, 1999.

Hmm... could this be "Allah" punishing the scumbag Turks for slaughtering children during the Armenian Massacres in 1915??

-- Kemal Abu Saleem Abush Sikdir (muslims_suck@allah.org), August 24, 1999.