Loss of natural disaster, a gain of the functional political system

There is no need to talk at length: Gabriel García Márquez actually wrote about the second-worst earthquake in the history of Turkey in terms of the Richter scale and the worst in terms of destruction in 10 cities on the 120-kilometer earthquake line under the name "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" half a century ago: now the word "death" can be replaced by "earthquake". Yes, in a country with 209 universities, it will not be wrong to replace the word "death" with "earthquake" or even with "massacre" while this is the value given to science.

The last sentence of the main article of the "Molla Nasraddin" magazine, the first issue of which was published in Tiflis on April 19, 1906, was: "Say your word to those who do not hear you"; see, the situation of Turkey's earthquake experts is like "not hearing a word". If the words of scientists specializing in earthquakes in a country are not heard abroad and appropriate measures are not taken, it does not matter if those who are not heard speak on TV channels 24 hours a day.

If one understood the meaning of the proverb "A good scare is worth more than good advice", then those who are obliged to listen to the words of these eminent scientists, "Istanbul is the biggest candidate for the next severe earthquake", should start taking steps to reduce the population of the country's largest metropolis by half instead of propaganda.

Thus, we could be sure that a new "Chronicle of an Earthquake Foretold" novel will not be written, "maybe tomorrow, maybe even closer than tomorrow". In the reports of the AFAD organization, which was created by the AKP government, which canceled the previous institutions in the fight against natural disasters and annoyed the NGOs, it was clearly written that the preparations were not enough.

eliminate the consequences of the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquake on February 6, was having difficulty in implementing general coordination, the leader of the MHP, the minor partner of the government, Devlet Bahçeli, attacks the singer Haluk Levent, the coordinator of AHBAP, who shows great professionalism in these matters. While Haluk Levent calmly continues to coordinate the work, the Minister of Internal Affairs joins the attacking convoy.

While the earthquake expert Professor Ahmet Ercan, whose words were not heard, said, "There are 70,000 people under the collapsed constructions," and it becomes even more difficult for those with weak nerves to follow the developments...

We have written many times: after 2011, the administration of Turkey seems to have passed into the hands of the builders: while the population is increasing by 1 million per year, with the encouragement of the head of state, construction works were allowed on the lands that were planted and harvested until yesterday, and even though everyone saw that about 80% of the buildings were not built according to the standards, it never occurred to those who ruled the country to prevent this.

Pay attention please: while half of the buildings in Antakya settlement of Hatay province on the border of Syria were razed to the ground, none of the buildings in Erzin settlement of the same province, in a manner of speaking, "had a nosebleed" without exception. The reason for this is that the head of the settlement municipality has not allowed any illegal construction at the cost of making enemies with relatives and has not made concessions when taking over ready-made constructions. Earthquake experts are the first to see that problems will increase unless the government and municipalities make this management method an unchangeable principle...

When AKP, which does not want to lose power even after 20.5 years, saw that the faults brought to light again by the earthquake could bring it to book in the election planned to be held in 3 months, through the former vice-speaker of the parliament, Bülent Arınç, who is one of the 4 main founders of the party, introduced the jargon "Elections should be postponed for at least 1 year" into circulation.

The politicians and officials of the AKP did not give up the tradition of linking every natural disaster that occurred in Turkey to the phenomenon of "fate", and when they linked the Kahramanmaraş earthquake to the same phenomenon, they inevitably remembered the Gölcük earthquake that occurred on August 17, 1999: When the Ecevit government removed the damage of the Gölcük disaster and put the economy on the right track in 3 years, Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahçeli had single-handedly laid the road to power of the AKP with a bulldozer by demanding early elections. Undoubtedly, since Mr. Erdoğan knows this better than anyone, he is the one behind the scenes who want the election to be postponed for 1 year. Mr. Erdoğan hesitates to take a step in this direction, as Bulent Arınç's proposal receives a negative reaction from the main opposition party.

He is rightly hesitant.

Because the majority of citizens will characterize the postponement of the election as "evading the election". This can cause a political earthquake in the ballot boxes.

Despite such a severe natural disaster, Turkey's democratic political system continues its functionality, which is the greatest gain for the citizens...