Beyond the Disaster: Vulnerability of Governance in the Turkey-Syria Earthquake

Two major earthquakes with magnitudes of MW 7.7 and MW 7.6 occurred in Turkey on 6 February 2023, with epicentres in Pazarcık (Kahramanmaraş) and Elbistan (Kahramanmaraş). Called the “Disaster of the Century”, they caused irreparable losses in 11 cities. Structural vulnerabilities such as the inadequacy in search and rescue efforts in the region, logistical problems and lack of planning regarding emergency shelter and health services caused dramatic reactions. These events revealed spatial and governance vulnerabilities, showing that irrational urban policies, the ineffectiveness of legislation, the limited use of technical knowledge and the differences between laws and enforcement practices contribute to urban vulnerability. The state of exception on which policies are based exposes the contradictory decisions of the governance and turns into a post-disaster control tool. This requires an analysis of the spatial and political implications of vulnerability. The discussion focuses on the first 90-day period that started with declaring a state of emergency in the region to analyse the disaster experience through “post-disaster ethnography”. The research involved spatial analysis, archival research of news material and an evaluation of practices during the state of emergency based on field observation.