L’Aquila today, Istanbul tomorrow
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Nisan 09, 2009 00:00
The images, stories and numbers that continued to reach the world yesterday from L’Aquila, Italy, prompt not just our heartfelt sympathy and solidarity with the people of Italy. They also prompt painful memories of the recent past in Turkey in the face of official blundering. And they also prompt fears toward the future in what is the world’s most earthquake-vulnerable major city.
When the Daily News went to press yesterday, the earthquake that struck central Italy on Monday had killed more than 250 and made tens of thousands homeless. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi may well have good and valid reasons for rejecting international aid. We don’t want to prejudge his decision. For we know well that a badly organized rescue operation can be worse than none, tying up airports, supply lines and dispatching the right materials to the wrong place or the reverse.
But Berlusconi’s action does evoke memories of the days after Aug. 16, 1999, the day that carried away the lives of 20,000 Turks, when nationalist Health Minister Osman Durmuş rejected donations of Greek blood and delayed the arrival and use of an American hospital ship as a matter of pride. Human life is far too precious for such pride; we will keep our hopes that this is not the case in Italy.
As with any earthquake in any part of the world, such events also carry our thoughts to the precarious position of Istanbul and other cities in Turkey. The 1999 earthquake was the largest ever to sweep through such a densely urban area. That unwanted claim had previously belonged to Tokyo and Yokohama, which suffered greater devastation in the Great Quake of 1923 but with a combined population in the affected area of 2 million. Had the epicenter in 1999 been closer to the heart of metropolitan Istanbul with its 12 million, the destruction could have been even more horrific. Which is why we must repeat that despite improvements in civic infrastructure, schools and other buildings, Turkey remains woefully unprepared for the temblor that geologists predict will visit the Marmara with such violence again, perhaps before you finish reading the newspaper or perhaps in 10 years. It is coming.
Just weeks ago we reported yet again on the sorry state of urban planning in Turkey. According to Sabri Erbakan, undersecretariat for the Ministry of Public Works and Settlement, little exists. Erbakan estimates 85 percent of buildings in Istanbul are illegal, while the figure is 65 percent for Izmir and 45 percent for Ankara. According to Erbakan and other experts, at least half the buildings in Istanbul could collapse amid another major earthquake. The death toll, they say, could be a multiple of the lives lost in 1999.
The misery today in Italy reminds us once again that we must prepare for tomorrow. It reminds us well that pride is no virtue when it results in human tragedy.
But Berlusconi’s action does evoke memories of the days after Aug. 16, 1999, the day that carried away the lives of 20,000 Turks, when nationalist Health Minister Osman Durmuş rejected donations of Greek blood and delayed the arrival and use of an American hospital ship as a matter of pride. Human life is far too precious for such pride; we will keep our hopes that this is not the case in Italy.
As with any earthquake in any part of the world, such events also carry our thoughts to the precarious position of Istanbul and other cities in Turkey. The 1999 earthquake was the largest ever to sweep through such a densely urban area. That unwanted claim had previously belonged to Tokyo and Yokohama, which suffered greater devastation in the Great Quake of 1923 but with a combined population in the affected area of 2 million. Had the epicenter in 1999 been closer to the heart of metropolitan Istanbul with its 12 million, the destruction could have been even more horrific. Which is why we must repeat that despite improvements in civic infrastructure, schools and other buildings, Turkey remains woefully unprepared for the temblor that geologists predict will visit the Marmara with such violence again, perhaps before you finish reading the newspaper or perhaps in 10 years. It is coming.
Just weeks ago we reported yet again on the sorry state of urban planning in Turkey. According to Sabri Erbakan, undersecretariat for the Ministry of Public Works and Settlement, little exists. Erbakan estimates 85 percent of buildings in Istanbul are illegal, while the figure is 65 percent for Izmir and 45 percent for Ankara. According to Erbakan and other experts, at least half the buildings in Istanbul could collapse amid another major earthquake. The death toll, they say, could be a multiple of the lives lost in 1999.
The misery today in Italy reminds us once again that we must prepare for tomorrow. It reminds us well that pride is no virtue when it results in human tragedy.