Pardoning
            <i>Kaçak</i>
            : politics of building amnesties and the making of the (im)moral urban economy in Istanbul

Erensü, Sinan

doi:10.1080/17530350.2023.2179651

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 52 publications

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“…As informal houses grew into informal neighborhoods and districts, they have been tolerated by local and central governments alike during the second half of the twentieth century, as an imperfect remedy for the shortage of good quality housing. The pragmatic Turkish authorities' overall position towards informal housing has been one of formalization, rather than their prevention (Erensu, 2023).…”

Section: Turkish Construction Amnestiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Turkish earthquake death tolls: lessons from downward counterfactual analysis and informal construction

Woo,

Gargiulo,

Napolitano

et al. 2024

Front. Earth Sci.

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Earthquake death tolls are a basic statistical measure of the capability of a country to manage seismic risk. The extremely high Turkish death toll of 50,000 from the Kahramanmaraş earthquake doublet of 6 February 2023 is the product of a cascade of detrimental factors. These need to be explained if lessons from this disaster are to be learned. This is the purpose and objective of this paper, which is a contribution to the interdisciplinary Frontiers research topic on integrated perspectives on the 2023 Turkey and Syria earthquakes: advancing understanding and preparedness across earth sciences, engineering and public health. This paper covers these three disciplines by focusing on casualties, and identifying crucial aspects of earth sciences and engineering which contributed to the high death toll. First, there was a surprising combination of multiple fault segment ruptures, and a high level of ground motion relative to the risk-based Turkish code, indicative of the under-representation of the M7.5+ earthquake doublet event in the national probabilistic seismic hazard model. This combination of fault segment ruptures was missing from all seismic source models. Furthermore, the capability of buildings to cope with strong ground motion was much reduced by informal construction methods, which eroded the margin of safety needed to avoid building collapse. The extent of building code non-compliance was widely underestimated in seismic risk models. Non-compliance is often hard to identify, but construction amnesties make non-compliance more transparent and trackable. The disastrous outcome of the Kahramanmaraş earthquake doublet of 6 February 2023 has drawn global attention to systemic building code non-compliance, and the open official acceptance of informal housing. To demonstrate that this key systemic risk is far from being just a Turkish problem, notably in Istanbul, the challenge of Italian informal housing is highlighted within the context of international building code non-compliance.

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Section: Turkish Construction Amnestiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Turkish earthquake death tolls: lessons from downward counterfactual analysis and informal construction

Woo,

Gargiulo,

Napolitano

et al. 2024

Front. Earth Sci.

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Kaçak | qaçax | قاچاق : fugitive forms of bureaucracy and economy across Southwest Asia

Yıldız

2024

Journal of Cultural Economy

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Political corruption and earthquakes: Governance in Turkey under Erdogan's rule

Cifuentes‐Faura

2024

Governance

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In 2023, a major earthquake struck Turkey, leaving thousands dead and exposing the country's corruption problems. The current Turkish president Erdoğan was sworn into power in 2003. Erdoğan's government has completely transformed the country with construction projects that have provided a huge economic boost. However, successive amnesties and non‐compliance with building regulations have uncovered cases of corruption. This paper analyses the evolution of corruption in Turkey during Erdoğan's rule. Several indicators are considered, such as the Corruption Perception Index, the Index on Impartial Administration or the V‐Dem Indicator on Political Corruption. The results indicate that two distinct stages can be distinguished during Erdoğan's term in office. The first stage was marked by a reduction in the perception of corruption, and the second stage was marked by an increase in the number of tenders for public works and corruption. Finally, several policy recommendations are proposed to reduce corruption in Turkey.

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Pardoning Kaçak : politics of building amnesties and the making of the (im)moral urban economy in Istanbul

Cited by 3 publications

References 52 publications

Turkish earthquake death tolls: lessons from downward counterfactual analysis and informal construction

Turkish earthquake death tolls: lessons from downward counterfactual analysis and informal construction

Kaçak | qaçax | قاچاق : fugitive forms of bureaucracy and economy across Southwest Asia

Political corruption and earthquakes: Governance in Turkey under Erdogan's rule

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