Mother, they are trying me for a thousand years

The two earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş that occurred on February 6, 2023, deeply affected all of Turkey. The figure given for the loss of life is generally stated as “more than 50 thousand.” Of course, I do not know how much more than “50 thousand” this number is.

It is written that 400 thousand residences collapsed or were damaged. However, the issue we know for certain is that this is not the last earthquake and that the probability of experiencing a loss of life of “more than 50 thousand” again is very high.

We see that this event, which happened only 9 months ago, is gradually falling off the country's agenda. In fact, except for one professional group, everyone has already started to forget the earthquake.

Before we get into our topic, let's write a story so that engineers know what dire consequences “joint and several liability” (müteselsil imza) can lead to.

The cow, having reached an agreement with a milk factory, almost objected when it noticed the sentence written in small print in the contract text: “both its milk and its meat will be utilized at the same time.”

“That is a 'standard' text, it has no importance, just sign it,” said the factory owner. “Otherwise, I won't take your milk,” he said. The cow, in order to earn money from its milk, was forced to sign the contract.

When the cow stopped producing milk and felt the dull knife at its throat, even if the words “at the same time, its meat as well” written in small letters came to its mind, it was already too late. After all, it was the holder of a “joint and several signature.”

Here, site supervisors are being tried for a thousand years.

He was supposed to be a civil engineer on paper. His mother put in so much effort. Because my child was going to take the university entrance exam, she neither accepted guests into the house nor left the house or the kitchen before the exam. She completed the recitation of the Quran, read the Yasin, and prayed to the Almighty. His father reduced all his personal expenses to the level of just breathing; he did not eat or drink, and invested his salary and savings into his children's education. Like the saying that a tree bends while it is young, he took all precautions in advance. He sacrificed everything so that his child would not be crushed under heavy competitive conditions and would not fall behind.

The child she had fed and raised for years had reached the turning point of his life.

In the end, her prayers were answered. Her child, far ahead of his peers, got into the civil engineering department, which was one of his first choices.

Now he would be set for life and have a good career. This choice would also be the means for him to find the spouse of his dreams. He would work on construction sites, building buildings, bridges, and roads. He would serve humanity. He would contribute to the development of his country. He would also earn good money.

He would have a house, a car, and the family of his dreams.

However, for these, he first had to finish the faculty he had won. He worked very hard. He passed very difficult courses like statics, strength of materials, dynamics, and steel, albeit with difficulty, with CC-CB grades. Sometimes he passed his heavy courses with the support of the bell curve by balancing DD with BB.

While successfully completing his graduation thesis, he also wrote his professor's advice, such as “you are now a civil engineer, your responsibility is very heavy, you will build houses where dozens of people will live,” in a corner of his mind.

What happened that he suddenly found himself being tried for a thousand years before a judge? Or had no one told him the risks of his profession?

He began to remember slowly in front of the judge. Especially the things his professors said during the graduation jury began to come to his mind. As the information in his background memory moved toward his foreground memory, the throbbing vibrations in his head were moving toward his conscience;

“What am I doing in court?

Am I really guilty?” he wondered.

It immediately came to his mind. Actually, his professors had warned him quite a bit during the graduation exam, saying that school was over and “we are now colleagues.”

“The authority is yours, own your signature, know its value, do not put your signature under every project, even if they force you, even if you go hungry, protect the honor of engineering, do not become a slave to street-corner builders who sold their sheep to come here, otherwise you won't find anyone behind you and you will end up in jail, and the conscientious aspect is separate,” his professors had said.

These were warnings and advice that he didn't quite understand at the time.

Was it too late?

Would he have another chance?

He hadn't even understood the situation he was in yet.

Was he really guilty?

Of course, the supreme Turkish judiciary will decide that.

Currently, dozens of civil engineer site supervisors are in prison and being tried while detained due to the responsibility of the signatures they signed but did not fulfill the requirements for, regarding the collapse of the buildings they were responsible for.

Their crime is causing the “death by negligence” of more than one person.

Because of the faulty projects and manufacturing they did and their careless signatures, people lost their lives under the rubble. Many engineers, who had never even hurt an ant before, are now being accused of causing the death of multiple people.

And with a thousand years at that.

Now he had a house and a car. And the spouse of his dreams.