On Thursday, the Turkish Institute of Statistics (TurkStat) released mortality statistics for 2020 and 2021. In 2020, when the pandemic began, he had 72,000 deaths, and another 130,000 in 2021, compared to the years before the pandemic. As of 2021, there were approximately 200,000 COVID-related deaths.
However, Turkey’s Ministry of Health claimed that the death toll from COVID-19 will reach 82,000 by the end of 2021. TurkStat has not yet released data on the number of deaths in 2022. Turkey’s death toll since the pandemic began was claimed to be 101,492.
However, as of December 27, 2022, the excess death toll had reached 319,000, according to calculations by Güçlü Yaman, member of the Pandemic Working Group of the Turkish Medical Association (TTB).
TurkStat has tried to stay out of the public eye by publishing a report it had previously unjustly postponed amid the earthquake disasters in Turkey and Syria. In his tweet on the matter, Yaman said:
He added: The important thing for them is to find a chaotic time to release the numbers. ”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and entire political system failed to prepare for the expected earthquake and reacted too late, causing the deaths of more than 43,000 people.
However, similar to the cover-up of the actual number of deaths related to the pandemic, it is suspected that the death toll from the earthquake has been grossly underestimated. Osman Bilgin, the governor of Surnak, who was in charge of districts in the area hit by the earthquake, admitted that the actual death toll in Turkey alone could exceed 150,000.
a report The Association of Public Health Professionals (HASUDER) in Hatay, hardest hit by the earthquake, said: ”
Since the earthquake disaster, the Erdogan government has focused less on rescuing and assisting earthquake victims and more on hiding responsibility for the social catastrophe. Access to Twitter, which volunteers used to search and rescue people under the rubble, was also blocked.
Critical airports and highways, which should not be built on fault lines and must withstand large earthquakes, were severely damaged. However, for a long time all national forces, military and civilian, were not mobilized and there were serious problems coordinating the response.
Reports confirm that many people died because the search and rescue operation started too late. time. ” And this limited “the number of citizens who could be rescued alive from the rubble.”
It was the product of an entire ruling class’s indifference to public health and safety. Measures submitted to parliament by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) before the June 2018 elections called for eight members of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) who had a “construction amnesty” section in their electoral program to ” voted in favor. These measures were intended to legalize illegal construction that violated regulations on earthquake and other disaster risks.
Since the early days of the pandemic, Erdogan’s government has adopted a policy of “putting profit before life.” It focused on hiding, rather than preventing, infection and death from the pandemic. The policy, which is being implemented around the world, culminated last year with claims that the “pandemic is over.” In fact, COVID-19 infections and deaths continue in Turkey and around the world.
This pandemic response has also been adopted by all factions of the ruling class, including the bourgeois opposition, the media and the trade union bureaucracy.
But just as science-based earthquake preparedness prevented this massive destruction and loss of life, public health measures against the pandemic prevented the deaths of some 320,000 people in Turkey and more than 22 million worldwide. There is a possibility.
Moreover, the populace was doomed before and after the earthquake and is still deprived of basic needs such as shelter and sanitation 18 days after the earthquake.
In a February 16 report, the Turkish Association of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases stated, “The current living conditions in the earthquake-affected areas greatly increase the risk of infectious diseases, so it is important to prevent these diseases.” We need to take swift action to prevent this,” he warned. However, serious hygiene problems remain unresolved in many places.
HASUDER reports: There are very few toilets and some are haphazardly placed on the ground and not connected to water or a cesspool. ”There are not enough toilets and some of the toilets opened for use do not meet the proper conditions. This threatens public health. ”
It reported seeing scabies in children and warned that crowded living environments increase the risk of COVID-19 and the flu.
In addition, the region continues to experience a serious shortage of tents. “Citizens have transformed existing greenhouse tents into living spaces through their own means. Most children and women sleep in these tents. It poses health risks in many ways, including the possible presence of pesticides.These risks are even greater for children.”
According to reports, only one of the 12 wells is working and is piled high with garbage. A field hospital could only be opened a week after the quake, but many of the wounded who were rescued from the rubble died “because they could not be transported to a full-fledged hospital in time.”
He warned about post-earthquake reconstruction. We aim to create a healthy and sustainable city with earth-friendly, earthquake-resistant and robust buildings. Citizens have the right to own safe buildings in which they can live and work safely. ”
Both in Turkey and around the world, social resources are available to take scientific measures to prevent deadly consequences from earthquakes and pandemics. To that end, the working class must put an end to the policy of “profit over life” and its source, capitalism, and build a global society based on social needs, i.e., socialism.