The intervention “is not happening as quickly as we hoped,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan admitted for the first time on Friday, five days after an earthquake killed more than 22,000 people in Turkey and Syria, AFP reported and Agerpres.

Recep Tayyip ErdoganPhoto: Mehmet Akif Parlak / AFP / Profimedia

“The destruction affected so many buildings (…) that, unfortunately, we could not intervene as quickly as we had hoped,” the head of state said during a visit to the southern city of Adiyaman. , was extremely affected by the disaster.

Erdogan acknowledged on Wednesday that there were “gaps” in the response to the earthquake, adding that it was “impossible to be prepared for such a disaster”.

Turkey’s omnipresent president, who has been in power for 20 years and is seeking a new mandate in elections scheduled for May 14, has been sharply criticized by survivors for the slowness of the intervention teams.

Population abandoned “to their own devices”

In Adiyaman, one of the survivors, Mehmet Yildirim, told AFP on Thursday that he saw “nobody”, “no state, no police, no soldiers” until “at 2pm the next day”. i.e. 34 hours after the first earthquake, accusing the authorities of allowing the population to “fend for themselves”.

Many people blame the lack of available means, especially materials. On Thursday, AFP saw the deployment of more lifting equipment and rescue teams – mostly foreign – in the city.

“During this period, there may be shortages, technical problems, but we are supporting our population with all our might,” Erdogan assured, adding that Turkey had set up “probably the largest intervention group in the world with 141,000” rescuers.

At least 19,000 bodies were found under the rubble in the first five days of the search after Turkey’s biggest earthquake since 1939, which killed 33,000 people.

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