The 6 February earthquake is a massive tragedy for Turkey and Syria, and the world needs to do much more to alleviate the suffering of millions of people. This Brief, however, will look into the seism’s consequences for the future of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Erdoğan’s political career took off partly due to his ability to exploit the 1999 earthquake, which was of a similar magnitude to the recent one, by exposing corruption and bad governance behind poor construction standards that left more than 17,000 dead in the region of Istanbul.
The then government of Bülent Ecevit was slow in responding to the disaster. Coupled with the 2001 financial crash, this helped Erdoğan’s AKP party to win the 2002 general elections with an overwhelming majority, securing two-thirds of the seats in parliament.
Ever since, Erdoğan has been consolidating his power, including through constitutional changes and by banning political parties and jailing political opponents ahead of the 16 May general elections.
But 24 years later, an even bigger earthquake, 7.8 on the Richter scale, struck the southern part of the country, with a death toll of 41,000 and counting.
The tables have turned, and the opposition is now questioning Erdoğan on his responsibility for the collapse of thousands of newly-constructed buildings, which should be able to resist a quake of this magnitude. The poor handling of the ensuing humanitarian crisis by the authorities also makes many furious.
Critics such as opposition CHP party leader Kemal Kılı ..
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