Earthquakes: the solidity of buildings questioned in Turkey, first arrests in the sector
Audio 01:08
A collapsed building in Diyarbakir, after the earthquake, Monday, February 6, 2023. AP
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2 mins
A dozen people in the construction industry have been arrested in Turkey, where grief is now giving way to anger, five days after the Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep earthquakes.
Despite anti-seismic regulations, many buildings were not up to current standards.
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With our special correspondent in Diyarbakir,
Céline Pierre-Magnani
The question of the resistance of buildings to earthquakes is a recurring problem in Turkey.
Thousands of buildings collapsed in the Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep earthquakes on Monday February 6, betraying their poor construction.
As the rescue operations to find potential survivors are coming to an end, it's time to take stock.
"
It's not the earthquakes, but it's the buildings that kill
," prevention specialists keep repeating.
This Saturday, local media reported that a dozen people in the construction industry had been arrested in the country.
Construction with briquettes
Ali, a 60-year-old from Diyarbakir, one of the ten provinces affected by the disaster, saw his building collapse.
He shows a photo of the damage where a whole section of the building has collapsed.
"
Well, the building you're going to see now is the one we lived in,
" he comments.
They did it wrong, that's why it collapsed like that.
No cement, nothing at all, they did it with the briquettes.
That's why many died.
I have five cousins who were there.
At the moment, we are working to get them out.
If there is little chance of finding his five cousins alive, one of them, living on the 6th floor, miraculously survived.
The AKP's urban transformation policies risk weighing heavily on the party's balance sheet, with only three months left before the presidential and legislative elections.
More arrests are expected after the Diyarbaki prosecutor announced, still on Saturday, that he had issued 29 arrest warrants, Turkish media report.
Turkey's Justice Ministry has ordered prosecutors in all ten provinces to open "
earthquake-related crime investigation offices
".
► To read again: Earthquake in Turkey: the delivery of humanitarian aid faces difficulties
(
And with
AFP)
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