October 24, 2011, 4:35 PM CET
Turkish Officials Pledge Support for Quake-Stricken Region
By Joe Parkinson
As residents in Turkeys eastern city of Van scramble to pull survivors from the wreckage of the countrys most lethal earthquake for over a decade, Ankara on Monday pledged to support the regions businesses, offering a raft of incentives to help afflicted firms get back on their feet.
Amidst a backdrop of uncertainty, with the death toll rising steadily through the day to hit 279 as evening fell, cabinet ministers from the ruling AK Party took to the airwaves to unveil various of financial aid.
The governments most senior economics policy maker, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, told the semi-official Anatolian News Agency that small and medium-sized businesses across Van province would be offered special support loans from state-run lenders Halkbank and Ziraat Bank. Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, a native of neighboring Batman province, pledged that affected businesses would be offered one years tax exemption. Not to be outdone, Labor and Social Security minister Farut Celik announced an immediate one-year freeze in earthquake-struck businesss obligation to pay social security contributions for employees.
Energy Minister Taner Yildiz pledged to send 2,000 tons of coal a day to the region and Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said the state postal service would not charge for any aid packages sent to Van Governorate.
Deputy Prime Minister Babacan said the government was doing all in its power to wrap the wounds caused by the earthquake. Our banks will give all support to our citizens who have suffered from the earthquake, he said.
The announcements came after Turkeys Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rushed on Sunday night to visit Van, the largest affected city just 10 miles from the epicenter of the 7.2-magnitude quake. The governments rapid response to the disaster in the mainly ethnic-Kurdish region underscored the seriousness of the quake, and also the political important of handling the disaster effectively.
The militant Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, is active in the region where the quake struck, and has many supporters there. Mr. Erdogans ruling AK Party is working hard to win backing from Kurdish citizens for his effort to crush or marginalize the PKK.
Political analysts said the government appeared to be executing its economic response effectively, but cautioned that handouts to those affected dodged the more pressing question of building safety codes across the countrys largest cities.
The government is offering the standard response pretty effectively, but none of this answers the essential question of building safety codes in Turkey especially the ones built by government or state tenders which are usually the first ones to collapse, said Atilla Yesida, an analyst with Istanbul-based research consultancy Global Source Partners.
Nothing has been done to inspect the buildings nor to come up with coherent earthquake emergency plans. We simply never learn this is a never-ending tragedy, he said.
Analysts also stressed that economic aid is particularly vital in Turkeys predominantly Kurdish south east, which is much poorer than the capital, Ankara, or the booming business hub, Istanbul. Despite Turkeys economy expanding more than 9% last year, official data from the national statistics authority showed that unemployment in Van in 2010 was 17.2%, sharply higher than the national average of 11.9%. Local administrators across Turkeys South East say unemployment levels are sharply higher than government estimates.
Aggravating the regions economic malaise, investors have also been spooked by the recent resurgence in violence between the PKK and the Turkish military, while cross-border trade with Syria, worth over $1.5 billion last year is plunging as Damascus struggles to contain opposition protests.
Outlining incentives for businesses is only one part of a broad earthquake relief effort. Over 3,000 rapid-response search and rescue personnel and over 700 health workers have arrived in the region, along with tents, food and heavy machinery to clear debris and help find survivors.
Van suffered a large earthquake in 1976, when more than 5,000 people died. Turkeys most recent catastrophic earthquake was in 1999, around 60 miles east of Istanbul, when at least 17,000 people were killed. In 1939, 33,000 people were killed in a quake in Erzincan, also in eastern Turkey.
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