[Antakya/Istanbul (Reuters)]- Antakya, a city in southern Turkey. From under the rubble of a collapsed apartment, Kebsel could hear the voices of his two sons. However, after searching around for two days, he was unable to find an emergency response manager who would issue a rescue order.
“Everybody just says they’re not in charge,” Kebsel said on Thursday. “I kept bowing my head to ask you to send me just one crane to lift the concrete.
A Reuters visit to the same site a day later said no survivors had been rescued since.
Many said more lives could have been saved if the emergency response had been quicker and better organized after the 7.8-magnitude quake that struck southern Turkey and Syria on Saturday. be asked.
Reuters interviewed dozens of residents and emergency responders. There were voices of embarrassment that people were forced to defend themselves in the middle of winter due to shortages of water, food, medical supplies, body bags and cranes.
Onur Naci Karahanci, a doctor who works in Adiyaman, southern Turkey, told a meeting of the doctors’ group that “the general problem here is the organization, especially in the medical sector,” and that the first two days after the quake were particularly devastating. They said they didn’t have enough body bags.
In Antakya and Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter, Reuters reporters saw few rescue workers in the first 48 hours.
Some survivors, who were unable to contact the Disaster and Emergency Preparedness Agency (AFAD), begged local teams to rescue their relatives from under the rubble, Reuters reported, but such requests were denied by AFAD. I was asked to go through the coordination team.
Since 2009, AFAD has been tasked with coordinating the disaster response and relief efforts of its 7,300 staff and over 600,000 volunteers, national and international organizations.
AFAD explained at its regular briefing on the 11th that about 218,000 people, including AFAD, police, police, soldiers and volunteers, have been mobilized to the affected areas. But the officials did not respond to criticism from residents that they were slow to respond.
Two experts interviewed by Reuters said Erdogan’s government’s centralization of AFAD’s emergency response was one reason for the delay. Examples include the military’s inability to mobilize forces at will without direct instructions from civilian authorities, and the exclusion of external emergency response organizations.
Hetav Rojan, a security adviser to Danish authorities and others, said that under the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Turkish politics and governance “has become more centralized”. “But centralization is detrimental in disaster management. A top-down approach hinders an effective response. It should be left to local forces to act in line with local needs. This is not the case in Turkey,” he said.
Erdogan came to power more than 20 years ago, in part because he criticized the government’s response to the 1999 earthquake. He has dismissed criticism of the government’s handling of the earthquake ahead of a reportedly close presidential election this year.
Some opposition politicians have stepped up criticism of AFAD’s lack of preparedness.
AFAD released a report on its response to the 5.9-magnitude quake that struck northwestern Turkey last November, acknowledging that it would lack vehicles and resources in the event of a larger disaster. Reuters viewed the report.
The report also pointed out that it was difficult to find the right personnel to respond, and that local coordination was poor. “The disaster response group was underprepared, the AFAD centers were selected incorrectly, and coordination and cooperation between organizations was insufficient,” it said.
By 2023, AFAD’s budget will be cut by two-thirds. At the same time, the budgets of organizations that AFAD coordinates, such as the police and the Coast Guard, have increased.
In the wake of a failed coup attempt in 2016, Erdogan stepped up his real power over economic, foreign and defense policy.
AFAD was under the prime minister’s office until 2018, but after the transition to a centralized presidential system headed by Erdogan, it came under the jurisdiction of the interior ministry under the president.
Nassou Malki, founder of the search and rescue organization AKUT, said last week’s quake was delayed because the military had to seek directions from civilian authorities.
In 2010, Erdogan’s government nullified a provision that allowed the military to operate inside the country without civilian consent under certain conditions, in a bid to weaken its mighty military.
“In a situation of such magnitude, massive cooperation is essential. AFAD appears to be responsible this time, but they were obviously unprepared,” Malki said.
Defense Minister Akar said in a statement that soldiers had set up an emergency center in southern Turkey within an hour of the quake, and that by Wednesday, more than 25,000 people had responded.
One nurse told Reuters that she was ready to rush to the affected areas on Saturday when the quake hit, but arrived 40 hours later because she had to wait for instructions from AFAD.
When they arrived in Hatay province, where the damage was most severe, the field hospital had no water, electricity or portable toilets, and was too far from the city of Antakya for many people to reach.
For the past 25 years, nurses have rushed to the scene whenever major disasters occurred, but the response to this earthquake is a shock. “I don’t understand why AFAD has failed so miserably,” she said.
(Reporter Jonathan Spicer)
