Istanbul residents living in fear of post-quake building collapses
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The mayor of Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, is warning of a race against time after February's deadly earthquakes highlighted deficiencies in the country's construction industry, with thousands of buildings collapsing.
"We don't know when the earthquake will hit," said Ekrem Imamoglu, adding that to let people live in buildings that threaten their lives was "to knowingly let them die".
Weeks after February's deadly quakes, buildings continue to collapse. Thousands of apartment buildings have been reduced into piles of rubble, with shoddy construction blamed for many collapses.
In Istanbul, poorly constructed buildings are already being pulled down. The city is home to over 15 million people and is prone to quakes.
Supervising the demolition of one building, Imamoglu warned his city was facing an unprecedented threat.
Building inspections
A municipal website allows residents to request their buildings be checked. Unsafe buildings considered beyond repair are being demolished while others are strengthened, with the municipality offering grants and cheap loans to residents.
But many people say they cannot afford to pay and now fear for themselves and their families.
"My family's apartment building is a five-story building and quite old. My brother's family lives there," explains Istanbul resident, a retired teacher. Sabiha Kuskun.
"They are terrified ... and their only consolation is they live on the top floor, and if the building collapses, they hope they can survive," she added.
Istanbul is the centre of the country's decade-long construction boom.
Developers have reportedly benefited from zoning amnesties introduced by the government to allow constructors to legalise buildings that violated stringent earthquake regulations by paying a fine.
"The whole system in Turkey is built around the construction industry. Whatever we saw in the quake-hit cities of Hatay and Maras, we will probably see the same here in Istanbul, so we are talking about a big risk," warned Istanbul architect Omer Yilmaz.
"The zoning amnesty has caused a huge problem; it is one of the foundations of the wider problem."
Developers arrested
Dozens of developers have been arrested in the aftermath of the February earthquakes. But Turkey's construction boom has driven the country's unprecedented economic growth, underpinning Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP Party's years of electoral success.
"Laws and regulations notwithstanding, it's the unstated policy of this government to use every square inch of land," observes analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.
"A" to build residential or commercial property expansion, "B" to feed an ever-growing group of homebuilders and construction companies, which in turn finance AKP and Erdogan's election campaigns," added Yesilada.
But the nearly two-decade construction boom under Erdogan's AKP Party rule became a means to social mobility and improvement for many in society and a key factor behind Erdogan's enduring political success.
"Now if you want to change your class in Turkey ... the only way you can do that is through construction," claims political columnist Sezin Oney of the Politikyol news portal.
"You have a plot, you build something, then afterward, you get a lot of money. Then you're in the riches all of a sudden and you change class."
Election campaigning is well underway ahead of May presidential and parliamentary polls. What happened and who is responsible in the February quake, with the death toll passing 50,000, is dominating the campaign.
In a rare showing of contrition, Erdogan vowed never to use building amnesties again.
"We can no longer think about enacting the laws of zoning amnesty. Otherwise, we will face what we experienced in the latest earthquake," he said in a television interview on Wednesday.
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