Stricter regulations were promised after quake two decades ago, but poor construction has played major role in latest disaster
More than 17,000 people were killed in a devastating earthquake near the Turkish city of Istanbul in 1999. In the aftermath, authorities promised stricter building regulations and introduced an “earthquake tax”, aimed at improving preparedness for the future in a country that sits on two major geological faultlines.
Ankara’s slow response to the disaster, however, played a large part in bringing Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development party (AKP) to power: the newly formed party won elections in 2002 by an overwhelming majority, promising transparency and to rebuild the economy, ruined by a stock market crash.
