Abstract
The Marmara earthquakes that occurred in 1999 marked a turning point in public crisis management policies in Turkey, as they triggered several reactions leading to a change in perception and management of this type of risk. This chapter focuses on the evolution of the social context following the Marmara earthquakes in order to understand how they affected the collective awareness of a state of vulnerability in Turkey, the mobilisation of civil society, and the emergence of new risk management tools. The first part shows how the Marmara earthquakes were both a major crisis and a catalyzer for change. The second one explains why the post-earthquake period was unfavourable to this change, due to both the failure of the government’s crisis management and to individuals’ misconception of risk. The third part deals with a multidimensional change in progress in the longer term, which implies evolutions in the legislation on land use, in the political-economic environment and in the system of individual incentives to take earthquake risk into account in urban habitat management.
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Notes
- 1.
Source: http://www.emlakkulisi.com/turkiyede-12-milyon-bina-kacak/184110 [consulted on 2 January 2015].
- 2.
On 28 April 1993, the explosion of a pocket of methane in the public rubbish dump of Ümraniye, one of the most rapidly urbanised districts of Istanbul, with a population of 660,000, caused 40 deaths and destroyed 11 houses. On 9 September 2009, 31 people perished in a flood in Istanbul.
- 3.
This was the case in particular in the damaged town of Sakarya. Following the Marmara earthquakes, the town developed towards unstable areas where new dwellings were built for the homeless (Akyol and Hayir 2007).
- 4.
The Gezi demonstrations began on 31 May 2013 to claim the right to have a say in the project to redevelop Gezi Park in the heart of Istanbul in Taksim Square. Heavily mediatised and politicised, the movement grew throughout Turkey, calling into question the legitimacy of the political authorities. The Gezi platform led to the emergence of eight forums to protect district parks, and they are still active today.
- 5.
Source: http://www.zaman.com.tr/etyen-mahcupyan/ergenligin-hazin-siyaseti_20986117.html [consulted on 6th November 2014]
- 6.
A car accident on 3 November 1996 in Susurluk, a small provincial village, made Turkish public opinion aware of connivance between a well-known Mafia boss, a member of the nationalist party, the councillor for security of Istanbul, and the chief of a Kurdish clan and member of parliament of the Liberal Centralist Party and also member of the coalition government of the time. This revelation of an “embedded State” led to strong mobilisation of public opinion in Turkey, via in particular the movement known as “a minute of obscurity for eternal light”, whose protagonists lit candles and placed them in their windows for one minute every night.
- 7.
Source:https://www.afad.gov.tr/Dokuman/TR/18-2012092815547-yapisalolmayanriskler.pdf [consulted on 10 January 2015]
- 8.
Initially $1.5 billion in loans from the World Bank, followed by $500 billion in loans from the IMF (World Bank 1999)
- 9.
The income collected to date is about 60 billion Turkish pounds, i.e. nearly $30 billion. However, little is known of how this sum is allocated. Source:www.dunya.com/depremvergileri-136477yy.htm [consulted on 10 December 2014]
- 10.
Source: http:// www.afad.gov.tr/tr/IcerikDetay.aspx?ID=30&IcerikID=269 [consulted on 3 January 2015]
- 11.
They recall law no. 5393 on municipalities, law no. 5216 on metropolitan municipalities, law no. 5436 on the protection and renovation of functional historical heritage and cultural buildings, and the law on the urban transformation project at the north entrance to Ankara. Furthermore, also noted were projects such as the urban transformation of the Dikmen valley by Ankara city council between 1984 and 1994, and the pilot urban transformation project for the Zeytinburnu area in the Istanbul master plan adopted in 2002.
- 12.
Source: http://www.csb.gov.tr/gm/altyapi/ [consulted on 10 February 2015]
- 13.
Council housing administration, under the authority of the Prime Minister.
- 14.
The reconstruction by the government of the areas damaged by the Marmara earthquakes restored the legitimacy of the public organisation, TOKI, which became omnipresent in property development from 2007 onwards.
- 15.
A symbolic illustration of this phenomenon is the district of Sulukule, initially populated by many Gypsies, but which became too expensive for them following the renovation of houses which were converted into apartments, between 2005 and 2008.
- 16.
The price of property in Istanbul increased by 25% in 2013, while the average increase for the rest of Turkey was 7.8% (Gyoder 2014).
- 17.
The data of the Ministry of Public Works show that most property projects are affected by errors of design and static calculations; also they are not subject to controls. In addition, 90% of construction sites use concrete that does not conform to regulations (Kocu and Dereli 2004).
- 18.
On the site of the Federations of Turkish Insurers, the column dedicated to the types of insurance sold does not indicate any sale of this type. Source: http://www.tsb.org.tr [consulted on 10 December 2014].
- 19.
Turkey is third worldwide and first in Europe for work accidents of which those occurring in the construction sector take first place in Turkey (ILO 2014).
- 20.
This is also the case for automobile insurance which is compulsory, but 20% of drivers have no insurance. Source: http://www.dunya.com/sigorta-sektorunde-dunya-gerisindeyiz-122685h.htm [consulted on 10 December 2014].
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Cömert-Baechler, N. (2018). The Motors of Change in Seismic Risk Management Policy in Turkey: The Multidimensional Nature of Response. In: Petit, V. (eds) Population Studies and Development from Theory to Fieldwork. Demographic Transformation and Socio-Economic Development, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61774-9_6
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