Turkish lawyers are roaming Antakya and other cities hit hard by Turkey’s earthquake, street by street, collecting evidence and data for future criminal cases against builders and government agencies.
The Turkish judiciary has created a special unit to investigate possible cases of negligence in the construction of the thousands of buildings collapsed by the February 6 earthquake and has already issued more than 100 arrest warrants, as announced last Sunday by the vice president of the Turkish government. , Fuat Oktay. Arrests of contractors and civil engineers have already been confirmed in Gaziantep and Sanliurfa provinces.
The Lusa agency found a group of lawyers in Antáquia, most of them belonging to the regional association of the Turkish Bar Association of Istanbul, who had been walking through all the streets of that city of half a million inhabitants since Monday, trying to register and obtain evidence. and data that could be used in the future against possible individuals responsible for the deaths caused by the earthquake, whose official preliminary tally already exceeds 35,000 fatalities in Turkey alone.
On Thursday, the Turkish Bar Association itself defended that all evidence of negligence in the affected area should be preserved and registered, at a time when rubble was already beginning to be removed from cities and operations have only accelerated since then.
Several regional associations of the Bar Association have called groups of volunteers to the scene in southeastern Turkey to collect evidence.
In the small group of lawyers the Lusa office spoke to in Antáquia, no one would give their names, fearing reprisals from the government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
However, An Istanbul lawyer spoke to Lusa and explained that that group had been in Antakya since Monday, having covered only 50 kilometers on foot that day, to record what happened, but also what happened in the city, namely the aid to the survivors..
“Help is not enough and it came too late. We all came too late. Here, [o apoio do Governo] it did not arrive until the third and fourth days. We are on the ninth day and they are still trying to get bodies out from under buildings. It’s all so tragic,” the lawyer told Lusa.
He arrived by bus from Istanbul on Monday, having previously tried to go to Antakya but was not allowed to, he says.
“As a citizen of this country, I am ashamed of what I see here,” he said, pointing to the background of Antakya, a city that, he says, “disappeared”.
Cigarette in hand, quick and urgent speech, the lawyer underlined that the responsibility will not only lie with the builders – who were the main target of the government after the earthquake – but also with the politicians.
“They like to say this isn’t a political thing, but it is because politicians are responsible for the safety of their citizens and we have tens of thousands dead. These are things we need to investigate, track, understand and then find.” the people responsible for this horrible nightmare,” he said.
“This is all too new, too fresh,” he said, adding, “Now is the time to heal.”
“Everyone here seems so strong, so straight, so powerful, but we are all traumatized. After we are healed, we have to talk about the problems, we have to talk about the solutions, we have to compensate those affected and we have to rebuild these cities. ” , underlined.
On February 10, President Erdogan acknowledged for the first time that five days after the earthquake, relief efforts were not “moving as quickly as expected”.
Several media outlets have taken note of the criticism from residents of the region about the government’s delay in response.
In Southeastern Anatolia, with the exception of Antakya and neighboring coastal districts, where the main opposition party, the People’s Republic Party (CHP, Social Democrat), has some strength, most of the region is conservative, regularly handing victories to Erdogan’s party , the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
On the grounds, some popular people, after telling the Lusa bureau how many days it took for the government’s aid to reach their towns, still thanked him for all the efforts made.
Source: DN
