IPA President Gökce warns: It must be completely abandoned to protect the safety of our citizens

Regarding the Constitutional Court's ruling that public institutions will also be held responsible for the safety of buildings covered by the 'zoning amnesty', Gökce stated, "We must completely abandon practices like the zoning amnesty and instead inspect and strengthen our building stock."

Gökce added, "The clear truth is: the creators of zoning amnesties cannot solve our cities' problems or make them resilient."

"IT MUST BE COMPLETELY ABANDONED"

Evaluating the issue on his social media account, Gökce included the following statements:

??Yapı kayıt belgesi alan yapılarda deprem gibi etkenlerle yaşanabilecek olaylardan kamu kurumları da sorumlu olacak.

?? Demek ki adına İmar Barışı da deseniz imar affı çıkardığınızda ne afet risklerini bertaraf edilebiliyor, ne de idarenin denetim ve gözetim sorumluluğu ortadan… pic.twitter.com/IaLC9wRWI4

— Dr. Buğra Gökce (@gokcebugra) July 26, 2024

"Public institutions will also be held responsible for incidents that may occur in buildings with a building registration certificate due to factors such as earthquakes.

This means that whether you call it a 'Zoning Peace' or not, when you issue a zoning amnesty, you can neither eliminate disaster risks nor remove the administration's responsibility for inspection and oversight. You are merely giving legal status to thousands of illegal structures, while neglecting or, at the very least, complicating the process of making these buildings earthquake-resistant.

With the regulation that came into effect on May 18, 2018, structures that did not comply with their building permits were included in the scope of the zoning amnesty.

Under the Communiqué on the Issuance of Building Registration Certificates issued within the scope of the relevant regulation, a provision was introduced stating that "The earthquake resistance of the building and the issue of whether the building is contrary to technical and artistic norms and standards are the responsibility of the building owner."

The Council of State filed a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court, requesting the cancellation of this regulation.

The Constitutional Court found the Council of State's objection justified and decided to cancel the relevant regulation unanimously. In its ruling, the court pointed out that it is unconstitutional to prevent compensation lawsuits against the administration in matters where the administration's responsibility for inspection and oversight continues.

With the cancellation of this provision, citizens will now be able to file lawsuits against the administration.

According to data from the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, 7 million 86 thousand independent units, including 5 million 849 thousand residential and 1 million 237 thousand commercial units, benefited from the zoning amnesty. 3 million 110 thousand Building Registration Certificates were issued.

Turkey paid a very heavy price for the zoning amnesty regulation. In the February 6 earthquakes, thousands of buildings that had received building registration certificates in this way were heavily damaged, and our citizens lost their lives.

To increase the earthquake resistance of our cities and protect the safety of our citizens, we must completely abandon practices like the zoning amnesty and instead inspect and strengthen our building stock.

The clear truth: The creators of zoning amnesties cannot solve our cities' problems or make them resilient."

News Source: 12punto