Istanbul (EFE).- One month after the earthquakes that have left 46,000 dead in Turkey, the country continues to take stock of the damage and the political cost that the management of the tragedy may have for the president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, facing to the elections this spring.
Although the first works to build tens of thousands of new homes have already begun in the 11 provinces affected by the earthquakes of February 6, the gigantic task of removing the rubble has barely begun, while hundreds of thousands of people remain homeless. people, a situation that poses a challenge for the organizers of the general elections.
The southeast of Turkey, plunged in rubble by the earthquake
Thus, the city of Antioquia, the most devastated by the tremors, still practically presents the same appearance of annihilation that it had immediately after the strong earthquakes that devastated it, except for some main streets from which bulldozers have removed rubble to facilitate traffic. .
But the old town is still entirely closed to pedestrians, with rubble clogging all the streets that lead into this centuries-old part of the city.
Just a few police tapes indicate that it is forbidden to venture between the buildings and in some parts there are guards to dissuade anyone who tries.
The danger is real: any aftershock, however modest, can bring down a damaged building, as happened yesterday in the city of Sanliurfa, where a six-story block next to a busy road suddenly collapsed.
The rubble caused only minor injuries to a passerby, but the incident drew criticism of the City Council for not yet demolishing the building, despite being categorized as severely damaged and slated for demolition.
In total, as reported yesterday by the Minister of Urbanism, Murat Kurum, 227,000 properties in the region have been classified as collapsed or subject to urgent demolition to avoid dangers, although he did not specify whether this figure is final.
The public institution of compulsory insurance against earthquakes DASK announced today that it has already received 327,000 reports of damaged properties and that it has paid amounts worth 2,050 million liras, equivalent to about 100 million euros.
an uncertain vote
More difficult to assess than the economic damage is the damage that the earthquake has caused to the party that has governed for 20 years, the Islamist AKP, and to its leader, the head of state and government of the country, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, when there is foreseeably little left more than two months for the presidential and parliamentary elections.
Even before the earthquake, Erdogan’s popularity had gradually declined, in parallel with the depreciation of the Turkish lira and rising inflation, to the point that the opposition coalition, made up essentially of social democrats and moderate nationalists, had good cards. to win, according to the polls.
Numerous victims of the earthquake have criticized the response of the public emergency services, since in many areas the rescue and aid teams took more than a day to appear.
But the first polls carried out after the disaster only point to a slight additional drop in the intention to vote for Erdogan for the elections that were supposed to be held on June 18, although Erdogan has hinted that he maintains his intention to call early elections for June 14. of May.
The decision has not yet been formally taken and there are voices calling for a year’s delay, due to the difficulties that organizing the appointment with the polls would entail in the devastated regions.
Theoretically, elections can only be delayed in the event of war, but the challenge of providing the right to vote for the two million people who have had to leave the affected provinces, not counting those who have been internally displaced, is considerable.