nightat the center of this Broken City a hive of activity thousands of volunteers have come South and now they manhandle the donations of clothing prepare meals on a grand scale and provide for those who are homeless or too frightened to go back into crumbling Flats center of it all a professor from Istanbul a natural organizer using the activists of his far left political party to fill the gaps left by a government stunned by this tragedy we decided to come here and to help the people because we knew that the government is totally um you know unorganized on the issue they couldn’t mobilize the the agencies and the Army and they all be you know emergency administration of the government when you go to rescue area you you know you you say is there anyone there normally you know you look for a sound and all the buildings you know there are many many many sounds you know they were you know you know the sounds came from many buildings and we were very few at that moment you know totally I mean the system was collapsed but still you know day after day hour after hour more people came for the rescue still not enough and too late and the professor’s movement is just part of a national relief effort that transcends differences here Quakes as levelers of lives and buildings also level social differences here in a lasting way or will the tragedy act to exacerbate political and other tensions it’s an enormous question and one that many people we speak to here aren’t yet even ready to address during a period of national Mourning this was one of the worst hit streets in central Antarctica although someone was found alive on the day we filmed it is now largely an effort to recover the Dead and among the helpers malign actors moved too the suspected looter was led Away by police locals told us that the Army had orders to shoot looters on site not a claim we could prove but there was a significant military presence in the city designed to reassure perhaps but evidence too of a government trying to catch up after an initial absence from many of the worst hit places there were some other disadvantage during that disaster the weather was very big at the disadvantage in the winter conditions the the the roads highways were closed independent of of the earthquake but of course that you can see many many complaints about what this was I mean insufficient because they couldn’t go in the second day or in the first day that was impossible of course to cope at the same time and simultaneously in thousands place and to make such an interventions to that places was impossible of course head north and you see signs of a movement that’s been going on for the past week millions are heading out and the cost of rebuilding lost homes is estimated at 6 billion dollars so the economic and political repercussions will be profound a thousand kilometers away in Istanbul the grief and initial shock is giving way to a consideration of those consequences Turkey already struggling with high inflation is heading for elections in May and president erdogan’s government was suffering in the polls even before the disaster situation on the ground is dismov and people are outraged and and also we are all morning and and it’s a it’s a Calamity that we are not going to get over very soon the region has lost at least you know 10 to 20 years but most of the discussions are going to be around the accountability uh of the of the government’s actions of the policy decisions most of the discussions are going to be about the the coordination or you know why you know an earlier uh and you know an earlier attempt at alleviating the situation it was not was not there president has told the earthquake zone offering condolences to the bereaved and encouragement to Rescuers there’s evidence too of how public anger is being channeled some property developers have been arrested as people blame shoddy construction for the high death toll but the government can’t completely avoid responsibility for that it is an unfortunate thing I cannot say anything to for example different or to to say something to to defend this situation this situation is is also referring to some Corruption of course isn’t that the responsibility of the government having been in power for so long the control mechanism should be should be set much more I mean solids the contractors is more than the country is private sector is very uh our private sector should be controlled much much carefully in this back in the disaster zone iskenderon is trying to get back on its feet there are plans afoot for semi-permanent camps for the displaced and talk among government supporters about postponing elections planned for May I asked opposition MP Susan Shaheen whether president erdogan is heading for defeat absolutely our people have been going through a lot of pain there is serious Injustice in my country democracy has been curtailed here the mentality has changed the presidential system is not suitable for our society we are creating more successful Solutions in order to make decisions by negotiation and by majority we call it a one-man regime and the presidential system is not suitable for the structure of our country it creates a lot of problems after the Quake then the Reckoning there’ll be so many challenges to Turkey during the coming months and if the elections do go ahead a chance also for the public to give its own verdict on who best to rebuild
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