Politics of Corruption and the Earthquake in Turkey, Syria, and Kurdistan

The two disastrous earthquakes that struck Turkey, Syria, and Kurdistan on February 6 were not isolated incidents. It is clear that this was not simply a natural disaster, but a catastrophe created by corruption, the erosion of institutions and politicization of disaster prevention. The inadequacy of mitigation measures, failure to implement regulations for safe urban planning, fraudulent construction practices, and lack of investments on emergency response made a preventable destruction inevitable.

Other major earthquakes that took place in the region in the last two decades had already revealed this systematic negligence, yet the lack of responsibility and action the Turkish government took over the years exposed their policy of choosing profit over protecting human lives. There are numerous cases of corruption related to public and private contracts, the use of substandard materials, and non-compliance with regulations. With many of the affected populations having been historically and systemically neglected, repressed and displaced, the tragic aftermath is the result of a series of political decisions rather than mere incompetence. Individuals, organizations and political parties who protest and attempt to expose state crimes and corruption have been, and still are being threatened and imprisoned. With the Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections coming up, it is imperative to reflect on the past and discuss the political implications of this catastrophe.

With: Enno Maessen (Turkey Studies Network), Zeynep K. Pinhas (University of Amsterdam), Zeynep Kaşlı (Erasmus University), Burcu Köken (TU Delft), Zaid Muhammad (VU), and Uğur Üngör (NIOD/University of Amsterdam). Moderation: Beste İşleyen (University of Amsterdam).

About the speakers

Enno Maessen is an urban historian, working on Turkey, Southeastern Europe and diasporas of Turkey. He is based at the Department of History and Art History of Utrecht University and is the coordinator of the Turkey Studies Network in the Low Countries.

Zeynep K. Pinhas is a master’s student in the Heritage and Memory Studies programme at the University of Amsterdam. Her work so far has been focused on prefigurative politics, protest and social movements, collective memory, and communitarianism in the Turkish context.

Zeynep Kaşlı is an Assistant Professor in Migration and Development at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. She is an interdisciplinary scholar specialized in state-society relations with a regional focus on Turkey, Europe, and the Middle East. Her work appeared in journals such as Political Geography, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political as well as other scholarly and non-scholarly periodicals and edited volumes.

Zaid Muhammad is a Palestinian who was born in Syria and has joined the Syrian Revolution. A political science student (VU), he worked as a journalist, education program manager (Kesh Malek), and editor (Verify-Sy.com). His writings focus on Palestine and Syria.

Uğur Ümit Üngör is Professor at the University of Amsterdam and the NIOD Institute. His main areas of interest are political violence in the modern and contemporary Middle East. He has conducted years of research in the Turkish-Syrian border region and is the author of a number of books, including The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950 (Oxford University Press, 2011).

Beste İşleyen (moderator) is Associate Professor in Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. Her research focusses on border security, territoriality and technology in European security. Her research examines the daily governance of migration and borders in Turkey. İşleyen’s work has appeared in, among others, European Journal of International Relations, International Political Sociology, International Studies Quarterly, Political Geography and Security Dialogue.