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ANTAKYA, Turkey—The Turkish government’s difficulties managing the aftermath of last month’s earthquakes have presented an awkward situation for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan : Some of his biggest rivals are helping to fill the gaps in the state’s response. Civil-society groups, political parties and opposition-run municipal governments have become surrogate governments in many of the worst-hit areas, handing out food and clothing, setting up makeshift medical centers, collecting garbage, fighting fires and repairing roads in cities that so far have received little aid from the central government.

☆ After Turkey’s Earthquakes, Erdogan Starts Rebuilding Over Objections
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Jared Malsin | Photographs Ahmed Deeb For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

NURDAGI, Turkey—President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is racing to rebuild hundreds of thousands of homes after last month’s earthquakes, drawing criticism from municipal officials and engineers who say Turkey is repeating deadly mistakes of the past. Three weeks after the Feb. 6 earthquakes, Turkish authorities broke ground on new apartment blocks that will contain nearly 500 units of housing here in this heavily damaged small town in the Gaziantep province of southern Turkey. Trucks are already carrying dirt and debris past fresh plots for what will be among the first buildings under the president’s plan to start construction of more than 200,000 homes across the earthquake zone in March.

KAHRAMANMARAS, Turkey—The earthquakes that devastated Turkey and Syria last week are heaping new stresses on the Turkish economy, posing a challenge for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who is facing an election this year. The quakes cut a path of destruction through a core industrial region in Turkey around the cities of Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, home to factories exporting everything from clothing for Western brands, jewelry, pots and pans, and iron. It also devastated some of the country’s agricultural infrastructure producing fruit, vegetables, grains and seeds. Now, the region is littered with damaged and destroyed industrial facilities.

ANTAKYA, Turkey—Marketed as “a little piece of heaven,” the 12-storey Ronesans Residence apartment complex opened in 2013 and stood until last week as a symbol of this southern city’s rapid urbanization and the two-decade expansion of Turkey’s middle class. Now the 249-unit development is a tomb and a crime scene after toppling over sideways in a devastating earthquake and trapping hundreds of bodies below. Its developer, Mehmet Coskun, is under arrest. Mr. Coskun, who was detained at Istanbul airport en route to Montenegro, said he obtained all necessary permits and inspections and denied that the building collapsed, telling a prosecutor: “Our building just laid on its side.”

GAZIANTEP, Turkey—Before Monday’s earthquakes, Gaziantep was a busy and prosperous border city, a haven for refugees fleeing conflict in neighboring Syria. In good weather, crowds strolled its green parks, shopped in a suburban-style mall and hung out in a plaza at the foot of an ancient citadel. Today, Gaziantep is a ghost town. With thousands of buildings destroyed or damaged and no electricity or running water, many residents fled. Those who remain are sleeping in cars, schools or the street, despite freezing winter weather.

ADANA, Turkey—Rescue efforts turned grim Thursday as fewer survivors were found amid the rubble four days after two devastating earthquakes rocked Turkey and Syria and people turned instead to burying the dead, now more than 21,000 people across both countries. In Turkey, the death toll was 17,674 by late Thursday evening local time, according to figures provided by Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay to the country’s state news agency. This surpasses the toll of a devastating 1999 earthquake that traumatized the nation and changed Turkish politics for decades. Authorities in Syria reported 3,377 deaths. Thousands more people were injured as thousands of buildings collapsed when Monday’s earthquakes—magnitude 7.8 and 7.5—hit the Syrian-Turkish border.

ANTAKYA, Turkey—The death toll in Turkey and Syria from powerful earthquakes surged Wednesday to more than 11,700 people as rescue teams’ hopes diminished and bad weather left survivors stranded in freezing temperatures. The scale of the devastation came into focus across cities and towns along the Turkey-Syria border regions where earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 left apartment blocks, office towers and hospitals in twisted ruins. A sense of dread spread among rescuers and families with missing loved ones as it became clear that the thousands of people trapped in the wreckage couldn’t survive much longer.

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