ANKARA, Turkey — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said the government will take action to make sure that illegal buildings and squatter homes are destroyed after an earthquake collapsed poorly made buildings, killing hundreds.
At least 461 people were killed in Sunday’s quake in the eastern province of Van and more than 2,262 buildings were destroyed, the government said. About 8 percent of the area’s buildings are insured for earthquakes, and covered losses will be between $55 million and $170 million, said catastrophe-modeling firm Air Worldwide, a unit of New Jersey-based Verisk Analytics Inc. Erdogan said poor construction is responsible for some of the deaths.
“From now on, we will pass all authority for illegal buildings and squatter homes to our ministry; whoever doesn’t fix or tear down such buildings, we will declare eminent domain and demolish them ourselves,” Erdogan said. “We will speedily make the legal arrangements.”
Turkey says it has sent more than 4,600 rescue and health workers to the province on the Iranian border. The government, which has been criticized by the opposition and people of Van for shortcomings in delivering aid amid freezing temperatures, also asked for more tents from 40 countries that had offered assistance as well as prefabricated housing and other shelters, according to local media reports.
The Turkish Red Crescent has shipped 25,666 tents to the province, Chairman Ahmet Lutfi Akar told reporters in Ankara on Wednesday, according to the state-run Anatolia news agency.
“Still, the necessity continues for more tents,” Akar said. “To meet the demand in the whole region we need 120,000 tents.”
The 7.2-magnitude quake has been followed by more than 700 aftershocks, some measuring more than 6 in magnitude, the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute in Istanbul said on its website.
In Ercis, the town hit hardest by the quake, two teachers and a university student were rescued from ruined buildings Wednesday, but searchers said hopes of finding anyone else alive were rapidly fading.
Erdogan said 63 teachers were among the dead, and he alleged that shoddy construction contributed to the high casualty toll. He compared the purported negligence of some officials and builders to murder because they ignored safety standards.
“Despite all previous disasters, we see that the appeals were not heeded,” Erdogan said.
Hundreds of angry people in Ercis and from nearby villages Wednesday protested outside the office of the local governor what they say was a lack of coordination of aid distribution, complaining that they were not able to receive tents yet. A senior police official with a loudspeaker tried to calm the crowd as dozens of Turkish soldiers and policemen blocked entrances of the governor’s office.
Akar said 17 trucks were looted before aid could be distributed.
Health officials said they had detected an increase in diarrhea, especially among the children, and urged survivors to drink bottled water until authorities can determine whether the tap water shows signs of being contaminated.
With thousands left homeless or too afraid to return to damaged houses, Turkey said it would accept international aid offers, even from Israel, with which it has had strained relations. Israel offered assistance despite a rift between the two countries over last year’s Israeli raid on a Gaza bound flotilla that killed eight Turkish activists and a Turkish-American one.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered a team to supply aid for Turkey “within minutes” of hearing the request for emergency housing units, an Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman said. A first set was to arrive in Turkey on Wednesday evening while more would be sent by sea.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking at a news conference during a visit to Jordan on Wednesday, said the Israeli assistance would not change Turkey’s “principled position” toward the country.
“Our political conditions continue,” the Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying.
Information for this article was contributed by Emre Peker of Bloomberg News and by Selcan Hacaoglu and Suzan Fraser of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 10/27/2011