BY BRIAN TAYLOR
The death toll in Turkey - officially 18,000 people as the
Militant goes to press - continues to rise after a ruinous
earthquake rocked that country August 17. The number of
residents dead could reach as high as 40,000. Tens of
thousands of people were reported injured and thousands more
are missing. Many people were killed as buildings where they
live came crashing down on top of them.
Turkey's National Security Council calculates that 200,000 people have been left homeless. Many of them are forced to stay in parks and vacant lots in the midst of heavy rains. The biggest post-quake danger is the heightened possibility of diseases spreading, from typhoid fever and cholera, to diarrhea and other illnesses.
Turkey is a semicolonial country with a per capita income of $5,617, barely half that of Greece. More than half of all the country's buildings are in violation of construction regulations and are prone to collapse in an earthquake. The capitalist government there, which the big-business press focuses on, turns a blind eye toward construction bosses who skimp on materials and cut corners to reduce their costs.
Most factories and villas owned by the wealthy in the towns of Golcuk and Izmit -at the quake's epicenter - remained intact. "There is not a single crack in any of them," said Ishak Alaton, a construction boss in Turkey. "This proves that if you use the right equipment, materials, and techniques, nothing happens even in a quake this bad." Meanwhile, apartments for working people as far as 60 miles away collapsed like a house of cards.
Washington has been of little help, proposing to send 3,500 all-weather tents. Many people may not see this emergency housing until late November, according to an Associated Press report. The U.S. government has, however, sped 3,100 sailors and marines to Turkey aboard three war vessels.