Don’t come here asking for votes: Turkey Prez Erdogan faces people’s wrath after quake
Just three months before the biggest test of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s political career, a massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Turkey and Syria, killing more than 21,000 people. Erdogan, who said last month that the elections will be held on May 14, is now facing the wrath of helpless and angry citizens, reported AFP.
He now faces a wave of criticism over his government’s response to the deadliest quake to hit Turkey since 1999, shortly before he rose to power.
There is growing anger among the residents in the quake-hit nation, with the locals complaining that rescuers didn’t arrive in time to pull out people who survived the first critical hours. Some pointed to a lack of machinery to drill through slabs of concrete.
“Don’t come here asking for votes,” Hakan Tanriverdi told AFP. “We were deeply hurt that no one supported us,” Tanriverdi said on the government’s earthquake response. Similar sentiments were echoed by locals in Adiyaman province — one of the hardest-hit by the quake.
“I did not see anyone until 2:00 pm on the second day of the earthquake,” Adiyaman resident Mehmet Yildirim was quoted by AFP as saying.
“No government, no state, no police, no soldiers. Shame on you! You left us on our own,” he said.
But the President is fighting back. The 68-year-old led a rescue response meeting in Ankara on Tuesday and spent the following two days touring a series of devastated cities.
Hours after the earthquake, he took centre stage at a press conference in Ankara — one of many that followed in the next three days.
The disaster struck the nation when Erdogan was trying to put out a series of crises at the same time. His approval ratings hit a low during a dire economic crisis that exploded last year.
At the same time, his government has been swatting away accusations of cronyism, corruption and bungling the response to environmental disasters, including wildfires in 2021. Opinion polls published before the earthquake suggested that the upcoming election would be his toughest electoral challenge yet.
