Turkish President Recep Erdogan acknowledged Friday that relief efforts “are not proceeding as quickly as might be expected,” five days after the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
“The destruction affected so many buildings (…) that, unfortunately, we were unable to carry out our interventions with the expected speed,” admitted the Turkish head of state, during a visit to the city of Adiyaman, one of the most affected because of the earthquake.
On Wednesday, Erdogan had already acknowledged “gaps” in the earthquake response, adding that it was “impossible to be prepared for a disaster of this magnitude.”
The Turkish president, who has been in power for 20 years and intends to run again in the elections scheduled for May 14, has been harshly criticized by the survivors, who accuse him of the slowness of the relief efforts.
In Adiyaman, one of the earthquake victims, Mehmet Yildirim, said he had not seen anyone at the disaster site until 34 hours after the first tremor, accusing the authorities of leaving the population “on their own”.
Many people lament the lack of material means, such as lifting equipment, and human resources, such as lifeguards.
“During this period there may be failures, technical problems, but we are on the side of our population with all our means,” Erdogan said, in response to criticism, recalling that his government had managed to organize what is “probably the most largest in the world”, with 141,000 rescuers.
At least 19,000 bodies were found under rubble in Turkey during the first five days of searches in what is already the deadliest earthquake to hit the country since 1939, when 33,000 people died.
Source: TSF
