Turkish Quake in Bingol Kills 118 Students in Collapsed Dorm
Survivors angry at shoddy construction practices. Bingol Police Chief sacked
The Turkish Times with US and Turkish press reports, wire services - A 6.4 magnitude earthquake that hit the eastern Turkish city of Bingol on May 1 has trapped 198 students at Celtiksuyu State Middle School, killing at least 118 of them at this writing. As the frantic efforts to rescue any survivors continue (as of May 3) poor construction material has been singled out as the principle cause why the school dormitory has collapsed on itself like a stack of pancakes, giving rise to the high death toll. In addition to the trapped students, the quake also injured 500 in the area.

As recriminations and accusations fly in every direction, some of the hundreds of angry survivors who demanded more tents and relief aid have clashed with the Turkish security forces and taken into custody.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited Bingol after the quake, defended the state's rapid response to the crisis and blamed the unrest on provocateurs in the town, a center of Kurdish PKK terrorism in the 1980s and 1990s. But while defending police actions he announced the Bingol police chief had been sacked.

The earthquake occurred along the East Anatolian fault, and appears to have been unrelated to a succession of devastating quakes that have struck west to east along the North Anatolian fault since 1939. In 1999, 17,000 people were killed in an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 on the North Anatolian fault near the town of Izmit in northwestern Turkey, 900 miles to the west of Thursday's earthquake.

Codes and regulations ignored
"Turkey has a pretty good earthquake design code. Had such a design code been followed the school would not have collapsed," said Alan Stewart of the British engineering firm Babtie.

"From the pictures I've seen on television, the building appears to be reinforcement-short," he added. While companies involved in larger construction projects in Turkey's cities follow building codes, elsewhere regulations are sometimes ignored.

BBC has reported that Bingol's school is typical of provincial buildings in Turkey - heavy concrete slabs have been placed on top of concrete columns, then the structure filled in with brickwork. With little reinforcement, buildings are prone to collapse when even very shallow earthquakes occur.

"You need strong columns and weak beams. You are designing where you want the building to fail," says Dr Paul Greening, a structural engineering expert at University College London.

Dr. Greening visited Izmit in Turkey after tremors led to the death of more than 17,000 people in 1999.

"Reinforcement bars were missing... metal cans had been placed inside columns to save on concrete," he said.

The collapse of Bingol's school has again focused attention on poor construction methods in Turkey.

Prime Minister Erdogan has pledged to bring to court any contractors responsible for unsafe buildings, a problem seen in a series of earthquakes in Turkey in recent years.

ATAA, FTAA launch joint campaign
As a reaction to the disaster, the two main Turkish-American organizations in the United States, the Washington-based ATAA (Assembly of Turkish American Associations) and New York-based FTAA (Federation of Turkish American Associations), together with their sister organization Turkish Forum, have launched an aid campaign to help the victims. A more detailed announcement of the campaign can be found in this issue. (See www.ataa.org)

Many local Turkish-American associations, like TACAM of Michigan, have also pulled up their sleeves and announced their own relief efforts for the Bingol survivors.

American Jewish Committee
In a letter sent to the Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on May 1, the American Jewish Committee expressed its "heartfelt sympathy for the people in Bingol in the wake of the deadly earthquake that struck today."

"As in 1999 following the devastating series of earthquakes that struck Turkey, we are ready to offer whatever practical assistance we can.

We at the American Jewish Committee feel strong bonds of friendship with the people of Turkey, never more so than at difficult moments like this," said Harold Tanner, President, and David A.Harris, Executive Director.