Stones instead of concrete. The footage revealed the quality of Turkish buildings

In footage provided by the AP agency, an earthquake-damaged building can be seen in the Turkish province of Hatay. A piece of the fallen facade revealed that one of the supporting columns was filled with only stone.

Experts began to point out shortly after the earthquake that the cause of the collapse of many buildings was their unstable construction made of unsuitable materials. More than a hundred people have already been charged in Turkey in connection with the collapse of some buildings.

An almost untouched glass structure stands out among the collapsed houses in a Turkish city. Meets EU standards

Foreign

After the last major earthquake in 1999, the Turkish government began collecting a special tax to provide money to make new buildings more earthquake-resistant. The opposition now accuses the government of spending the selected funds inappropriately and also of not enforcing more the application of the correct building regulations.

“For years we held conferences, wrote reports and sent them to local authorities. We told them that cities like Hatay and Gaziantep will be hit by big earthquakes,” recalls Professor Okan Tüysüz from Istanbul Technical University. “But no one listened.”

A 2019 video also surfaced on social media in which Turkish President Erdogan brags about a so-called construction amnesty that “solved the construction problem” in Kahramanmaraş province, one of the most affected areas. Later, he was to announce amnesty in the provinces of Hatay and Malatya, which were also hit very hard by the recent earthquake.

The amnesty was meant to allow construction to continue after the fine was paid, even if the authorities found deficiencies in the buildings. All over Turkey, 3.1 million buildings were reportedly built using the construction amnesty.

Erdogan boasted four years ago of amnesties for houses that have now collapsed

Foreign