The culture of impunity

Over the weekend, the Istanbul Bar Association held an 'Earthquake Symposium' to mark the anniversary of last year's Hatay earthquake. The symposium was organized under the leadership of the Istanbul Bar Association and its President Filiz Saraç, who have been extending a helping hand and contributing to the entire earthquake-stricken region since the day the tremors occurred. Having previously brought together bar association presidents in the second month of the earthquake, Filiz Saraç did the same at the end of the first year, ensuring that these events are recorded in history; Adıyaman Bar Association President Bilal Doğan, Diyarbakır Bar Association President Nahit Eren, Kahramanmaraş Bar Association President Burak Gül, Malatya Bar Association President Onur Demez, and former Hatay Bar Association President Hüseyin Cihat Açıkalın shared what has transpired in the time since.

First and foremost, there is great uncertainty regarding the buildings damaged in the earthquake. In the hasty building tests conducted after the earthquake, reports given for many buildings—classified as damaged, slightly damaged, or to be demolished—were later changed. In other words, a building previously labeled as heavily damaged later received the opposite report, and in one building, thirty apartments were declared damaged while one was declared undamaged. The reasons for these changes vary; some were truly due to faulty tests, but in others, cronyism played a role.

The death toll is much higher than the announced 53 thousand; there are even those who consider the figure of 130 thousand, which slipped from the tongue of the then-minister Murat Kurum, to be too low. The issue of missing children has also, unfortunately, not been sufficiently investigated, and it is believed that children have been abandoned to certain religious sects.

The number of houses delivered at the end of the first year is very low, and tens of thousands of people are still living in container cities.

In debris collection, the principle of preventing waste from coming into contact with air and water is not being followed, and waste disposal sites have not been selected in accordance with regulations; agricultural lands were preferred instead, and earthquake survivors will be negatively affected in the coming years by diseases caused by this debris.

There are lawsuits filed, but looking at the ratio of investigations to the number of cases, it appears that the judiciary is working very slowly, and there are major doubts regarding the administration of justice.

According to the bar association presidents, a different law is applied in every earthquake; this has happened again, and it has been impossible to prevent.

Malatya Bar Association President Onur Demez stated, "In some buildings that collapsed in Malatya, there was no lack of iron or concrete, yet they still collapsed. In this case, it is understood that the administration did not fully perform its duty and was negligent when granting construction permits." For example, the cutting of support columns was overlooked, and public officials are guilty here, but no one is pursuing them or holding them accountable.

The common view of the bar association presidents is that there is an avoidance of punishing public officials for the earthquake. In all provinces where the earthquake occurred, permission to investigate public officials has still not been granted; in Malatya, permission was only issued after a year. In other words, an invisible hand is preventing the investigation of public officials. In fact, former Hatay Bar Association President Hüseyin Cihat Açıkalın explained that they filed a complaint requesting a lawsuit against those who implemented bandwidth throttling on GSM networks during the earthquake, but the prosecutor rejected the criminal complaint, saying it was "overlooked" despite the phrase "public officials" being written in the petition.

In short, it is understood that 53 thousand people died according to official figures, and 130 thousand according to unofficial figures, but not a single public official has been investigated.

The "Culture of Impunity" in Turkey is, unfortunately, a plague we always encounter: an earthquake happens and the official is not tried, torture is committed and the security personnel is not tried, bribes are taken and the official gets away with it, a person is murdered and those who neglected their duty are not touched. It is because of this culture of impunity that whatever evil exists continues. But remember, if a faulty civil servant knows they will not be held accountable, you cannot keep them from taking bribes, committing crimes, neglecting their duties, or allowing illegal construction despite the risk of earthquakes; on the contrary, you encourage them to commit crimes.

But you might also ask:

In this country, knowing full well that an earthquake was coming, was the illegal construction of eleven million people not overlooked with the zoning amnesty just four or five years ago?

Unfortunately, it was overlooked, and this is our second shame similar to the "Culture of Impunity."