On 6 February 2023, a massive earthquake hit southern Türkiye and northern Syria. Over 49,000 people have died and the earthquake flattened cities. Syria has already been struggling with a decade of Civil War and this disaster will add to the refugee crisis. Over half of a crore people have been left homeless and have been forced to live in rain and temperatures that often dip below freezing.
What could have been done?
Türkiye has imposed a three-month state of emergency in many provinces. However, relief systems have been strained in both Syria and Türkiye. The Turkish government’s response has been inadequate, though defenders of the Turkish government have insisted that the Earthquake was a force of nature that could not be prevented. Though the earthquake could not have been prevented, given the vulnerability of the region, it seems odd that a more robust emergency system could not have been properly developed.
This is stranger given the history. In Türkiye, Erdogan had come to power in 2002, following the similarly devastating earthquake that hit 1999. In that earthquake, 17,000 people died, and Erdogan promised to make hard choices to prevent a similar disaster from happening again. However, in the aftermath of the recent earthquake, there have been valid criticisms of Erdogan’s government’s response, particularly around centralization and poor response. The earthquake highlighted the weaknesses of the government’s neo-liberal policies and its lack of local control.
How Right-wing governments redirect blame
Rightwing governments have tried to shift the burden of social security, emergency response and social service from the public sector to the private sector. Religious organizations and other identity-based organizations are often propped up, and given an advantage in terms of funding and state support. These organizations are majoritarian and can spread the image that the government should stay out of these activities. In times of crisis, they can spread pro-government messages without making the government liable when things go wrong.
At the same time, these governments try to shift the focus from the government’s role to inflammatory issues that can redirect public attention. In Türkiye, anti-Kurdish sentiments have been flagged, as the Turkish government has been increasing its attacks on the Kurdish population, both in Türkiye and in Northern Syria.
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The Kurdish people in Syria have already been fighting a multi-side war. In 2012, guided by feminist, anarchist and socialist principles, the people of Rojava Syria declared their region as an autonomous region. They have tried to construct a society which is not accountable to the state or patriarchy. They have built radical self-defence units to protect the freedoms of the people from the area. They have been attacked by the Syrian government at first. During the course of the Syrian Civil War, they have come against fundamentalist groups, like ISIL.
Since 2016, the Turkish government had escalated the attacks on the Kurdish regions of Syria, claiming that they are a terrorist group. The Turkish state’s attacks against the revolution in Kurdistan are expected to continue and intensify in the coming weeks and months. The state’s suppression of democratic forces in order to maintain power and conceal the crisis of the Turkish state has a long history, with the use of poison gas being a sad tradition in Kurdistan. The AKP-MHP regime is planning its next steps to crush self-governance in Kurdistan, relying on the backing of international powers to supply war equipment that is used to commit brutal crimes on a daily basis.
The war in Syria also played a significant role in Turkish politics. The government switched its focus to terrorism and continued its attacks on Kurds. International players, such as the USA, Russia, and Syria, were also involved in the conflict.
Recent attacks, such as ongoing poison gas attacks in Southern Kurdistan, targeted drone strikes on the autonomous area of Northern and Eastern Syria, the upcoming elections in Türkiye, and the catastrophic earthquake that recently occurred in Türkiye, are all part of this continuation of the genocidal policy against Kurdish society. The rulers continue to resort to the cruellest means in their fight against the aspirations for freedom of the people in the Middle East.
Inadequacy in the Turkish response
The rescue systems in Türkiye were not prepared for an earthquake of this magnitude, and NGOs often took the slack when they were ineffective. These NGOs can be used by the right wing to promote their propaganda. In 2009, the government established the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) to coordinate disaster relief. The government also promoted faith-based organizations, particularly during the aftermath of the earthquake, which was seen as a way to gain more support for the ruling AKP party.
However, the government’s response to the earthquake was slow, and there were criticisms that it was being used for propaganda purposes. The earthquake occurred during a period of political uncertainty, with the 2023 elections looming. Erdogan was losing ground to the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP). In response, Erdogan declared a State of Emergency, which enabled him to make use of crisis points like earthquakes and pandemics to maintain his grip on power.
The rising racism in Europe was also a significant issue in Turkish politics. The Syrian Civil War had been used by the right wing to promote fearmongering against Turkish refugees. The Turkish government used the hurt response to the earthquake to gain more support for their policies.
The right-wing playbook is similar across many countries, with rising racism being a common tactic. The comparison with India is significant, particularly around how the Gujarat earthquake was mobilized and then used for propaganda purposes. The government declared a State of Emergency, similar to Erdogan’s, to maintain its grip on power.
The manipulation of these events might seem distant, but the patterns can be seen in governments across the world. Even in India, we have seen how such a pattern was deployed during times of crisis, such as the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, where Hindu organizations took advantage of foreign funding to organize the local populations against minorities, or even during the pandemic, where the failure of government response was taken advantage of, by Hindutva elements, to spread messages to affected populations that worked in favour of the government.
Author is a mathematician and an activist based in Bangalore, India.
