See also Report
and photographs taken at Bingöl by Polat Gülkan.
and Comment by Ben Wisner
and Links page
and “Disaster prevention and the 1999 Turkish earthquakes” by Green, P., al-Husseini, A., & Curry, C.
(Executive Summary, Full
report to download here)
Letter from Murat Balamir, 2 May 2003
Dear Maureen,
Thanks for the mail and your concerns. The tragedy is indescribable. These local
boarding schools are the only windows for enlightenment and means of taking part
in the modern mode of life for many of the rural families. This is why they send
their children for the emancipated primary and secondary learning with great
sacrifices often beyond their levels of affordability. The alternative is taking
the route for religious schools (horrid and mediaeval).
Response may be satisfactory in this occasion. But the necessary steps in
general have not been taken yet. These were spelt out last year in full by the
National Earthquake Council with their report on 'National Mitigation Strategy'.
Just as it was announced in March 2002, the coalition government crisis started
and it took almost a year now, elections, a powerful government, but then the
war. The issue of mitigation was soon to take place in the new governments
agenda. We are likely to play a major role probably in this, since we were
requested to submit a full report to the parliamentary commission on the necessary legal provisions. These
mostly empower the local authorities and enable them in carrying out mitigation measures.
On the other hand, we are engaged in preparing an 'EQ Master Plan for
Istanbul' to be completed by July. Following that, a pilot area in Istanbul will be
replanned and retrofitted extensively. My inclinations are not to confine it to
an engineering exercise but convert it into probably a comprehensive social,
financial, and legal operation besides physical planning, within a participatory
context.
Hope to inform you of the developments.
Best Regards
Murat Balamir, Middle East Technical University, Turkey
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