Schools in Southern Turkey will remain closed until March 1st. THE 19 millions of children and young people living in the 10 provinces most affected by the terrible earthquake of 6 February will be able to return to school in twenty days, albeit in the classes set up in the tendon This was announced on February 12 by the Turkish Minister of National Education, Mahmoud Ozer. A first step towards the normalization of the life of the population, according to the institutions. Normality which, however, six days after the earthquake, while it continues to dig, even with bare hands, among the rubble, it is still too far away. The account of victims keep going up: they are 33.179but the figure is expected to grow further in the coming days.
Officials and doctors have stated that 29.605 people died in Turkey e 3.574 in Syria. But fragmented and incomplete information arrives from the country of Damascus, devastated by years of conflict. It is difficult to precisely quantify the casualties and damages. The earthquake involved millions of people. The displaced i’m over cinque millions and second Martin Griffithsthe relief officer of the Nations Unitethe final number of deaths caused by the “worst event in 100 years in this region” could exceed 50 mila.
In the meantime, the search for the dispersed. Despite the freezing temperatures, the tiredness of the rescuers and volunteers, and the six days that have passed since the day of the earthquake, there are still those who manage to get out alive from the skeletons of the buildings. It is the case of a newborn Of 7 monthsrescued in the Antakya district of the southern Turkish province of Hatay after 140 ore spent under the rubble. But this is not the only case ‘miraculous’: a girl Of 10 years she was rescued afterwards 147 ore, in the same area. While in Adiyaman province a was rescued bimbo Of 8 years oldleft 152 ore under the debris.
In Ankara meanwhile the controversy. Citizens are demanding that the government act quickly, after i delays in the relief efforts of the first few days, and that clarity be clarified as to who has responsibility of the disaster. On February 11, the Turkish authorities issued arrest warrants for 113 builders. One hundred and fifty local prosecutors, announced by the Ministry of Justice, have been authorized to set up “unit investigative on crimes related to the earthquake”: the prosecutors will be able to initiate criminal cases against all “builders and responsible for the collapse of buildings that did not comply with existing codes introduced after a similar disaster in 1999”. One of the arrested entrepreneurs is Mehmet He lost Coskun, responsible for the construction of a 12-story luxury condominium with 250 apartments in Hatay province which was flattened by the earthquake. The man was arrested atthe Istanbul airport while trying to leave the country to go to Montenegro.
According to some critics, the arrests are a Ankara’s attempt to deflect blame for the disaster, as experts had long warned that many new buildings were unsafe. There Bbc reports that government policies in the past have allowed “amnesty” for builders who have failed to comply with building codes, even in earthquake-prone areas, in an attempt to trigger a boom in the sector.
In addition to the hunt for builders, the Turkish police forces have to face another emergency: that of jackals. I am at least 98 the people arrested in the past few hours for the looting of buildings damaged by the earthquake. Among the other disputed charges also those for robbery e flourish. According to security sources, some people were arrested after posing as aid workers and for trying to loot six truckloads of food for survivors. In parallel with the hunt for builders, the president Recep Tayyip Erdogan promises a tough battle against looters: “From now on people involved in looting will not escape the firm hand of the state.”