Turkey arrests building contractors 6 days after quakes, staggering death toll climbs

By: David P.

As the death toll in the pair of earthquakes that devastated southeast Turkey and northern Syria continued a staggering climb – with some reports of 34,000 killed – officials arrested or issued warrants for around 130 people allegedly involved in the shoddy construction of buildings that crushed their occupants.

More than 80,000 people were reported injured by the quakes and the death count is expected to continue rising as despair among survivors turned into rage amid slow rescue and relief efforts – and a lack of preparation in the earthquake-prone region.

Both CNN and NBC on Sunday reported those killed in the quakes tops 34,000.

In Turkey, construction codes that meet current earthquake-engineering standards were rarely enforced, which led to thousands of buildings slumping over on their sides or imploding onto residents, officials said.

Turkey’s justice minister vowed to punish those responsible as prosecutors collected building material to be used as evidence against 131 people suspected of cutting corners on buildings destroyed by the magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 quakes on Feb. 6.

Two contractors allegedly responsible for the destruction of several buildings in Adiyaman were arrested at Istanbul Airport Sunday before they could catch a flight to Georgia, according to the private DHA news agency and local reports.

A contractor of a luxury 12-story building in the historic city of Antakya that collapsed in the quakes, killing untold victims, was also detained at the airport before he could flee the country.

Two other suspects in the Gaziantep province were arrested on suspicions that in one collapsed building, they had cut down columns to make extra room, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The arrests came a day after Turkey announced the creation of “Earthquake Crimes Investigation” bureaus that will collect evidence against suspects and check building and occupation permits.

The crackdown also served as a way to deflect attention away from government officials who had apparently approved construction of the inferior buildings ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections in May.

As the aftermath of the catastrophe entered its sixth day, rescuers pulled several survivors from the rubble, even as crews were crippled by widespread infrastructure damage which had hobbled roads and airports.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan had said last week initial rescue efforts had been stymied by the damage, which had paralyzed a 300 mile radius that was home to 13.5 million Turks. During a tour of cities devastated by the quakes Saturday, Erdoğan referred to the carnage as the “disaster of the century.”

International rescue teams used thermal cameras and sniffing dogs to try to find survivors under the rubble who had overcome increasingly long odds nearly a week after the disasters.

Two sisters were pulled from the wreckage in Adiyaman Sunday, along with a 6-year-old boy who was rescued from the debris of his home, according to HaberTurk television.

A broadcast of the child’s rescue saw the boy being wrapped in a space blanket and put into an ambulance as a group of women cried in joy.

Turkey’s health minister, Fahrettin Koca, posted a video of a young girl in a navy blue jumper who was rescued.

“Good news at the 150th hour. Rescued a little while ago by crews. There is always hope!” he tweeted.

Another survivor, Mustafa Sarigul, 35, appeared to be unscathed after being pulled from rubble in Antakya by Italian and Turkish rescuers, private NTV television reported.

A 32-year-old teacher named Meltem was also freed from the ruins of an eight-story building in Antakya, and asked for a cup of tea upon her rescue, according to NTV.

Mama Busra, 75, on Saturday waited in an Antakya park turned into a shelter for the newly homeless as a Turkish soldier climbed into the bucket of an excavator to search her damaged Antakya home for a cell phone.

Bursa had not talked to her son since the disaster and feared he was dead – but she finally was able to talk to him on the phone.

“It’s like you gave me the world,” Mama Busra said of the moment she heard her son’s voice.

However, for every person who was freed or escaped unharmed, the bodies of countless others were recovered. A large makeshift grave was being built outside Antakya Saturday as black body bags kept arriving. Hundreds of graves spaced about three feet apart were marked with simple wooden planks.

Across the border in civil war-torn Syria, the plight was less clear. The death toll in the country stood at 3,553 Saturday, but had not been updated in the government-held parts of the nation for days. A hardline group’s “approval issues” had halted the distribution of aid in opposition-controlled territory, a United Nations spokesperson said Sunday.

A source from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Sunni Isamist group fighting the government, told Reuters the group was only accepting aid from across the Turkish border.

“We won’t allow the regime to take advantage of the situation to show they are helping,” the source said.

The UN worker in Damascus said the group “continues to work with relevant parties to have access to the area.”

Diplomats were hoping to open additional border crossings between Turkey and opposition-held Syria for aid deliveries. Turkey had said it was open to a direct border zone with government-held areas, more than a decade after cutting diplomatic ties with the country as war erupted.