Quake fallout threatens Turkish strongman

Demands of ‘Erdogan must go’ spread across country as voters denounce lack of action to help victims

AS the people of Turkey’s once prosperous south-east waited for help in the rubble of their homes after last month’s earthquake, one question kept coming up: “Where is the government?”

The disaster on Feb 6 killed nearly 45,000 in Turkey alone, left millions homeless across an area almost as large as Germany.

In the days and weeks that have followed, fury at the government and the lack of properly enforced building regulations has spread well beyond the earthquake zone and increasingly focused on Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country’s strongman president,

Last weekend, fans of the country’s two major football clubs – including the president’s favourite team – chanted “Erdogan Resign!” at games in Istanbul. The two teams have since been ordered to play to empty stands, but the scale of the anger in the country is clear.

With elections in May, Mr Erdogan seemed worried while visiting the city of Adiyaman this week. He hugged children, stopped to listen to old ladies, and asked for “helallik”, an Islamic term meaning “forgive and forget”.

He dismissed the threat to his grip on power yesterday, though. He said of the opposition: “We have already set our goal. Whatever they do, we continue to work on our plan, our road map.”

But the earthquake has exposed his government’s fatal failings, and with many seeking to hold him personally culpable, he is facing the most serious challenge to his grip on Turkey yet.

“Erdogan is responsible for this disaster because he wanted to be responsible for everything in this country,” said Sera Kadigil, an Istanbul lawmaker from the Workers’ Party of Turkey, who is coordinating volunteer efforts in the badly affected region of Hatay.

This week, the Workers’ Party filed a criminal complaint, seeking charges on counts including murder against 24 top officials, including the president.

“The Turkish public is devastated and in shock because there’s a sense that the system is crumbling but there is no guarantee that it can be replaced by anything else,” Asli Aydintasbas, a visiting fellow at Brooking Institution, told The Sunday Telegraph.

Converting dissatisfaction into an electoral defeat for Mr Erdogan remains a huge task, particularly given the fractured state of Turkey’s opposition.

Even before the earthquake, various political groups mounted a rare campaign to unite. The so-called Table of Six brings together the leaders of six opposition parties with widely differing agendas. But they have been unable to agree on a joint candidate to challenge Mr Erdogan at the polls.

With swathes of the country in ruins, some have suggested it would be prudent to push the election back, something Mr Erdogan has vowed not to do.

Opposition hopeful Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People’s Party, this week agreed, saying Turkey could not lose any more time with Mr Erdogan and his party in power.

“We don’t have a year, not even a day to give you,” he said. “We can’t endure any more of your incompetence.”