I’m going to share some elements because this event really shows how populist operate. This is how a political islamist, a bolsonarist or a putinist will operate at any given time in any situation.
The powers being concentrated on one person, the regime did not send the army during the first 48 hours of the earthquake. The reason for that is that he didn’t want the army to regain some sort of “popularity” before the elections that are going to happen in the month of May. In a similar way, miners were not allowed to disaster regions (because they were not directly tied to the regime). Many people who were alive, wo could yell, who could talk died under the rubbles (basically by freezing) because no one came to their rescue. Foreign rescue groups were stranded for hours in airports and some of them (like the Spanish) simply left because government officials did not let them do their jobs. Field hospitals belonging to İtalians are siting in some place empty because no one is directing the wounded to these hospitals. Some other foreign field hospitals were moved 3 time (because according to their logic these people are not “one of theirs”). Private aid groups like the aid group of the Rock Singer Haluk Levent were targeted by government officials and by social media trolls again, because they want to be seen as the only ones who are delivering help. People do not Trust the AFAD or the Turkish Red Cross (these government agencies) because the regime placed İmam’s and theologians to the highest offices of these century old institutions. We have a world class alpinist called Nashruh Mahruki who climbed the Everest and founded the AKUT, a top level / world class search and rescue team that could intervene in such events. The man (a man who climbed mount Everest) was thrown out of this institution and than the AKUT was transformed into the AFAD which is not operating at its best and everyone knows it.
This is not a situation that is limited to earthquakes. Mine incidents calming the lives of hundreds, huge wildfires that are being extinguished by civilian efforts only have become the norm of my country. The state is simply not present. Instead prayers are being chanted from minarets and the events are being called “the plan of God / Destiny’s work” and victims are being called “Martyrs” (by the way, the term martyr in Islam only applies to those who die defending their country in a situation of war / we don’t even have religious martyrs as they do in Christianity).
Today, 20 day since the earthquake, it is still civilians who come to the aid of civilians. Government institutions do play a role but it’s not really the lion share of the work being done there. One key issue: Antony Blinken was here last week. If the “president” has asked, I believe tents could be sent to the Incirlik airbase that is located in the affected within a matter of hours. But the president did not make such a demand. He had other issues on his mind (probably).
Still, State-controled media denies all of this, but there are still people without tents, toilets, showers, hygienic materials, heating ovens, fuel for these ovens etc. Volunteers + state officials who go to that area are said to be facing huge difficulties themselves.
As a reminder: in the Marmara earthquake in 1999 the army + miners were on the spot within hours. + all sorts of basic necessities were also met within hours without anyone even asking for foreign aid. And as far as I remember, there was no huge civilian mobilization. The state or government was there from the first two hours until the end of the crisis. So what has happened is that this “neo-Ottoman” / populist dream of theirs kind of F.d all of our institutions. So the discourse adopted is now based of the severity of the earthquake. But this is a lie. We are a Japan-like country and everyone above the age of 20 has seen at least one major earthquake event in his / her lifetime.
This is like “The Pest” being described in the book of Albert Camus. Populism is the greatest evil of our time. And the only thing I am thankful about is that there is always a worse of the worse. Still people have to see that autocracies are dangerous. Regimes that are based on lies and propaganda are a danger to the very people they are ruling and the main reason why I hate Russia + Iran is that these regimes have the tendencies to back one another (like Xi Chi Ping backing Putin at this moment). Here is a short article on the current situation of tents 20 days after the earthquake:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkey-quake-survivors-struggle-shelter-132035704.html
The powers being concentrated on one person, the regime did not send the army during the first 48 hours of the earthquake. The reason for that is that he didn’t want the army to regain some sort of “popularity” before the elections that are going to happen in the month of May. In a similar way, miners were not allowed to disaster regions (because they were not directly tied to the regime). Many people who were alive, wo could yell, who could talk died under the rubbles (basically by freezing) because no one came to their rescue. Foreign rescue groups were stranded for hours in airports and some of them (like the Spanish) simply left because government officials did not let them do their jobs. Field hospitals belonging to İtalians are siting in some place empty because no one is directing the wounded to these hospitals. Some other foreign field hospitals were moved 3 time (because according to their logic these people are not “one of theirs”). Private aid groups like the aid group of the Rock Singer Haluk Levent were targeted by government officials and by social media trolls again, because they want to be seen as the only ones who are delivering help. People do not Trust the AFAD or the Turkish Red Cross (these government agencies) because the regime placed İmam’s and theologians to the highest offices of these century old institutions. We have a world class alpinist called Nashruh Mahruki who climbed the Everest and founded the AKUT, a top level / world class search and rescue team that could intervene in such events. The man (a man who climbed mount Everest) was thrown out of this institution and than the AKUT was transformed into the AFAD which is not operating at its best and everyone knows it.
This is not a situation that is limited to earthquakes. Mine incidents calming the lives of hundreds, huge wildfires that are being extinguished by civilian efforts only have become the norm of my country. The state is simply not present. Instead prayers are being chanted from minarets and the events are being called “the plan of God / Destiny’s work” and victims are being called “Martyrs” (by the way, the term martyr in Islam only applies to those who die defending their country in a situation of war / we don’t even have religious martyrs as they do in Christianity).
Today, 20 day since the earthquake, it is still civilians who come to the aid of civilians. Government institutions do play a role but it’s not really the lion share of the work being done there. One key issue: Antony Blinken was here last week. If the “president” has asked, I believe tents could be sent to the Incirlik airbase that is located in the affected within a matter of hours. But the president did not make such a demand. He had other issues on his mind (probably).
Still, State-controled media denies all of this, but there are still people without tents, toilets, showers, hygienic materials, heating ovens, fuel for these ovens etc. Volunteers + state officials who go to that area are said to be facing huge difficulties themselves.
As a reminder: in the Marmara earthquake in 1999 the army + miners were on the spot within hours. + all sorts of basic necessities were also met within hours without anyone even asking for foreign aid. And as far as I remember, there was no huge civilian mobilization. The state or government was there from the first two hours until the end of the crisis. So what has happened is that this “neo-Ottoman” / populist dream of theirs kind of F.d all of our institutions. So the discourse adopted is now based of the severity of the earthquake. But this is a lie. We are a Japan-like country and everyone above the age of 20 has seen at least one major earthquake event in his / her lifetime.
This is like “The Pest” being described in the book of Albert Camus. Populism is the greatest evil of our time. And the only thing I am thankful about is that there is always a worse of the worse. Still people have to see that autocracies are dangerous. Regimes that are based on lies and propaganda are a danger to the very people they are ruling and the main reason why I hate Russia + Iran is that these regimes have the tendencies to back one another (like Xi Chi Ping backing Putin at this moment). Here is a short article on the current situation of tents 20 days after the earthquake:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/turkey-quake-survivors-struggle-shelter-132035704.html
![[Image: 7151bc275de2d3d422106a4008215efe.jpg]](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/71/51/bc/7151bc275de2d3d422106a4008215efe.jpg)
