Regime’s “Big Turkey” Has Collapsed!
The regime has been parroting “the Big Turkey” mantra on every occasion, asking the working masses to be proud of it. Through the myth of “the Big Turkey”, the rulers were promising a strong economy, prosperity, stability and peace. Erdoğan was saying, “2023, where we will celebrate the centenary of our republic, will also be a milestone where we will herald the building of a great and strong Turkey. Since the early morning of 6 February, workers have been faced with the destruction, which is a direct result of the policies followed by those who keep parroting the mantra of “the Big Turkey”. Maraş, Antep, Hatay, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Adana, Urfa… 10 provinces, of which 7 are metropolitan municipalities, have collapsed on top of the workers. Even the official statements paint an appalling picture. But the reality goes much further than this picture. In the morning of 6 February, “the Big Turkey” of the one-man regime collapsed, leaving the workers trapped under the rubble!
Almost 24 years ago, following the earthquake of 17 August 1999, the people trapped under the rubble were crying, “is there any one out there?” Their cries were buried deep in our memory. Today, thousands are trapped under the rubble once again. They are tweeting that they are under the rubble. They are sharing their location. So many years have passed since 1999. Despite all the bitter experiences and enormous advances in technology during this period, not a single step has been taken towards the well-being and prosperity of the society! Scientific warnings have been ignored. No measures have been taken. There is not a single residential area that has been designed or redesigned as earthquake-resistant. No crisis plan for disasters, no emergency assembly areas, no sufficient rescue teams, no equipment. The state is simply non-existent in earthquake-hit areas! On top of it, there is no conscience, no decency, no consideration, no fairness! The capitalist system is dragging the workers towards the same disasters over and over again. The regime, whose ambitions are way above its capacity, is steeped in greed. It is ready to sacrifice the society for its own interests. We are talking about a regime that keeps parroting the mantra of “Big Turkey”, whereas, in fact, it allocates all the resources for the sake of staying in power and further enriching a handful of capitalists.
Here is “Big Turkey”!
Geology Professor Naci Görür says, “We geologists have warned over and over again that the earthquake was coming. Nobody responded to our warnings!” Naci Görür and many other scientists pointed to a possible earthquake in Maraş. The rulers ignored these warnings. And now they are trying to explain the destruction with “destiny”. 3 days after the earthquake, Erdoğan appeared in Maraş. He said to a survivor, “What is done is done. These are all part of destiny’s plan.” This callousness is not alien to us. We saw the same attitude in Soma, Ermenek and Bartın, where hundreds of miners were killed because of unsafe working conditions. Strangely enough, destiny’s plan does no harm to the rulers who greedily plunder public resources and the gains of the workers. For some reason, destiny’s plan affects only workers and the poor. When it comes to the lives of workers, rulers ignore the warnings and neglect to take the necessary measures. And when the disaster takes place, they exploit religious beliefs in order to escape responsibility. We cannot allow this, for the regime is guilty to the core!
In a live broadcast, Erdoğan insults the people and threatens the opponents: “When the time comes, we will reopen our book of record.” While thousands are crying for help under the rubble, one of the ministers shamelessly says, “Everything is under control. The only problem is the fake news flowing from the social media.” Another minister is callously playing with his phone while a survivor is desperately asking him for help. Another minister is glorifying “local blankets” and “producing Turkey”. A former member of parliament from the AKP says, “Adıyaman will be repaired by our leader.” A governor smiles to a survivor who asks “Where are the aids?” The police stop the trucks carrying the aids that were collected by the democratic mass organisations and municipalities run by the opposition parties. They replace the banners on the buses with those of the regime’s institutions. When workers try to have their say, toady media organs either obscure what they say or turn their back. No helping hand was extended to the 12 people trapped under the rubble of a Quran study school. Instead, safe cash box has been taken out of the rubble. No words can describe this rottenness and viciousness.
Antakya-Reyhanlı Motorway and the Runway of Hatay Airport
In the “Big Turkey”, buildings and infrastructure are as rotten as the regime! Despite all the warnings of the TMMOB [the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects], Hatay Airport had been built on the desiccated Lake Amik. Now, its runway has split in two, making it impossible for the aid planes to land. Likewise, Malatya Airport has crumbled. Hospitals, which must remain standing no matter what, have collapsed in the “Big Turkey”! Schools, student dormitories, courthouses, mosques, motorways, bridges. The list goes on endlessly.
reyhanli-antakya-karayolu-havalimani_pisti.webp
In the “Big Turkey, the AFAD [Turkish Disaster and Management Authority] has a budget of 8 billion liras, whereas the Presidency’s budget stands at 7 billion liras. Even worse, the department of religious affairs, which recites sala prayers from the mosques instead of mobilising its resources, has a budget of 36 billion liras. The regime has always allocated a huge amount of the taxes, collected from working masses, to aggressive military policies. Yet it has refused to mobilize the resources of the army for the earthquake-hit areas. In the “Big Turkey”, there is an army of trolls on the government’s payroll, numbering tens of thousands, whereas the search and rescue officers of the AFAD number only 1.789. Despite the passage of so many days, this rotten regime even failed to reach the half of the collapsed buildings just to confirm that they collapsed.
While the workers were digging the rubbles with bare hands below the temperature of minus 5 degree, the one-man regime kept the international and domestic rescue teams waiting with their equipment at the entrance of the cities or airports for days. While the survivors were waiting for water, food and blankets, the regime was occupied with blocking the aid trucks of working-class organisations, socialists, CHP and HDP and undermining solidarity networks. Vice President Fuat Oktay criticized the municipalities of the CHP for repairing the crumbled runway of the Hatay Airport, saying “Who gives you the right to repair the airport?” Moreover, it restricted Twitter, which enables survivors and volunteers to communicate and coordinate with each other, at such a crucial time when there are still people trapped under the rubble making emergency calls. The regime has taken this step in order to obscure its crimes. But it is no different from murder. The rulers declared state of emergency, rather than social mobilisation. This clearly shows that for the rulers, the regime is the first thing to save after an earthquake. Characterised by shamelessness and callousness, the regime and its henchmen are now trying to silence and stifle legitimate reactions and protests.
Scenes of Big Plunder from “Big Turkey”!
Following the Earthquake of 1999, a temporary tax of earthquake was put into practice. Over time, it became a permanent tax, which is now known as ÖTV [Special Consumption Tax]. The total sum of the ÖTV, which have been collected from the working people over the last 23 years, is equal to 735 billion liras [39 billion US dollars]! This tax had been allegedly introduced to fund the recovery from the earthquake and make the cities on fault lines earthquake-resistant. With such an enormous sum, hundreds of thousands of houses could have been made earthquake-resistant and many cities could have been restructured. But this was not done. Where did all these taxes go? Whenever this question was raised, the official answer illustrated the callousness of the regime. Former Minister of Finance, Mehmet Şimşek, said, “it was spent on motorways, railways and airlines.” Erdoğan said, “it was spent on what was necessary. From now on, we have no time to give an account for such things.”
Moreover, earthquake taxes are only a little part of the plunder committed by the regime. It became public knowledge that over the last 20 years, 300 to 400 billion dollars have been taken out of Turkey. Massive sums have been channelled into big construction companies, known as “gang of five”. They became the worldwide leaders in terms of earnings from public tenders. Public resources were put at the service of the capitalists. With the mantra of “No compromise on reputation”, huge sums were spent on luxuries and extravagance. In addition to the 1150-room presidential palace, 2 more palaces (one for winter and one for summer) were built. What they mean by “Big Turkey” is nothing but this rottenness.
Those who say that the earthquake inflicted the same suffering on everyone are liars. In the stock market of the “Big Turkey”, shares of cement and steel companies skyrocketed after the earthquake. Keeping the stock markets open for days after such a disaster, the regime gave the green light for this profiteering. Those who ask “not to mix the earthquake with politics” are in fact intending to derive political benefits. They seek to hide their crimes. They seek to avoid the disastrous results which they can face as an outcome of this disaster. The architects of the “Big Turkey” are steeped in rottenness. They dragged the whole country towards a disaster. Their attitude is directly linked to their class character. They only care about finding new sources of quick profit, enriching the capitalists and staying in power at all costs.
All around Turkey, the hearts of the workers beat for the earthquake-hit areas. But this is not enough. We must stop the destructive results from further expanding. We must heal the wounds of our class sisters and brothers. To this end, all workers must support the solidarity campaigns organised by trade unions, socialists and working-class organisations including UİD-DER. We must remember that those who are wounded have also the remedy. We are not only grieving, but also angry! The working class must organise in order to hold to account those who build flimsy houses for their bloody profits, those who neglect to take necessary measures, those who threaten us, those who are the architects of the “Big Turkey”, and capitalism!
