Kahramanmaras, Türkiye – “We were all alone. It was raining and we waited for days in front of the collapsed building. No one came to help us,” says Fatma, who sits with other women in a soup kitchen set up in a large white tent in the courtyard of an empty building in the southern Turkish town of Kahramanmaras. .
This cry echoes through the earthquake zone, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government was accused earlier this year of a slow disaster response and lax enforcement of existing building regulations. “Where is the state? people asked again and again as they camped in front of demolished buildings, waiting for the bodies of their loved ones to be removed.
But as buildings crumbled in central Kahramanmaras – a historic stronghold of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) – the same cannot be said for support for the incumbent president.
Seven of the province’s eight parliamentary seats are currently held by the ruling party’s coalition with the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
Just three months ago, the city was closest to the epicenter of the twin earthquakes that devastated the region on February 6 and killed at least 51,000 people in Turkey alone. On Sundays, its citizens are called to vote in an election it may well be the largest in the country’s modern history.
“We can’t afford to rent”
Outside the tent, a local NGO distributes free food to those like Fatma who have been left homeless by the earthquakes. His neighborhood in central Kahramanmaras suffered the most casualties in the city. The area is now dotted with craters and rubble-strewn patches where dozens of high-rise buildings once stood and where thousands of people lived and worked.
Fatma launches a tirade about everything that has gone wrong since then – at the end of which she asks that her real name not be released.
“My husband is sick, we can’t stay in a camp so my friend is hosting us,” she told Al Jazeera, “but how long can it last? How long can we be a burden to others?
The hairdresser, 50, says her husband is unable to work due to a back injury, as she has lost all of her clients since the disaster.
“We can’t afford to rent an apartment. Before, you could rent for 5,000 Turkish liras [$255]. Now you need at least 7000-8000 [$357-$408]she says, referring to a spike in rent prices due to increased demand after the earthquakes, as well as inflation that reached more than 80% last year, according to official data. .
“I think the government is not distributing aid well. They should check who is in need and who is not,” she concludes.
“Some people are responsible”
In an increasingly polarized political climate, polls and research suggest the earthquake may have little effect on the outcome of the next election. A investigation for the Ankara Institute, while 90% of government supporters rate the government’s response to the earthquake as a success, 90% of opposition supporters say it failed.
And while perceptions and ideas may vary across the 11 earthquake-affected regions, in Kahramanmaras’ ground zero, this seems overwhelmingly true.
“Of course, I think some people are responsible, who didn’t follow the building regulations,” says Mesut Islamoglu, 43, who recently reopened his optical shop in a small shipping container along the coast. one of the main avenues in the city center, across the road. from where his store had been located for 18 years before it collapsed.
“We are people who believe this is a disaster from God,” he says. “We mourn the people we have lost, everyone we know. But we consider ourselves very lucky to be living in the midst of such a great disaster.
Business, he says, is slowly picking up as the glasses are in high demand and many townspeople have returned in the past two weeks.
Nearby, workers are hammering the construction of new containers to replace a deserted mall across the road. A handful of people are seated at tables set up on a sidewalk in a makeshift cafe that sells the typical firik, a local specialty bread made from sun-dried fermented yoghurt and thyme.
“We were told that the government was going to build containers [for us]but I realized it was going to take time,” he says, “so why be an extra burden on our state?
“He is the only one”
Erdogan’s People’s Alliance bloc faces a six-party coalition known as the National Alliance and led by the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
For weeks, the two have been neck and neck in the polls. Kilicdaroglu was slightly ahead although many still predict that the presidential election will go to a runoff on May 28.
The common opposition ticket includes staunch secularists as well as political Islamists and disgruntled former allies of Erdogan. They promise to restore Turkey to a parliamentary democracy and reverse Erdogan’s unorthodox economic policies based on lowering interest rates – which many economists blame for soaring inflation in the country and the loss of more than 70% of the value of the Turkish currency over the past two years.
“I trust Erdogan. We lost 11 cities to the earthquake. I think he is the only one who can rebuild them,” concludes Islamoglu.
A muted campaign
Billboards across the city carry posters of Kilicdaroglu and the opposition as well as Erdogan’s AK party. One particularly effective image does not appear to be aimed at voters, but bears the slogan “solidarity of the century” alongside a photo of Erdogan hugging a veiled, crying woman. He claims that the state has mobilized all its resources for the victims of the earthquake.
Over 200,000 buildings were destroyed or severely damaged in the earthquakes, and the estimated cost to Turkey could be over $100 billion. according United Nations estimates.
Political campaigning was muted in the earthquake zone, where there were no loud rallies or campaign buses playing propaganda songs.
“We hold meetings with people, out of respect for the victims,” says Ali Oztunc, a local politician and deputy leader of the opposition CHP. He estimates that while a million people left the city after the earthquake, more than half have now returned.
While voters may still be loyal to Erdogan, he says people have turned their anger on the local AK Party administration.
“There was a backlash against the mayor, the municipality, the deputies. In this region, every drop for Erdogan below 70% is a failure,” says Oztunc.
As Turkish citizens are called to vote twice on May 14 – one to elect the president and another for a local MP – he says he hopes some voters in the province can split their vote and opt for Erdogan as president , but give their seat in parliament to the opposition.
Ultimately, the effect of one of the world’s greatest catastrophes on this key election will not be measured until the morning after the vote.
Fatma, for her part, has no doubts about at least one of her votes.
” I do not think so [the government] failed us. For the presidential election, I will vote for Tayyip,” she explains, referring to the outgoing president by his middle name.
“But for parliament, I might vote for someone else, just to give everyone a chance.”