Trend

Suspicions of involvement of British companies in cheating the construction of hospitals in Turkey

image

Since the first day of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria at the beginning of this month, the issue of fraud in the construction of some modern buildings was raised, as they should have been built with earthquake-resistant specifications, but it proved weak in front of what happened, which necessitated the seizure and bringing of a large group of contractors who carried out modern construction projects that were demolished in a suspicious way of fraud in construction, and this topic is still interacting on the Turkish scene so far and has turned into a trend for several days, especially since it has been proven that Foreign construction companies are involved in fraudulent construction, and we will try to shed light on some details of this story.

The family of 68-year-old Turkish woman Esil Kaya remained worried that her house could collapse as a result of an earthquake, and like many houses in Turkey it was built illegally and in poor condition, so they eventually sold it and bought a new one. The new house endured the seismic blow of magnitude 7.8 on the Richter scale, in addition to a large number of aftershocks that hit southern Turkey on the sixth of February, but Kaya's house endured all that, and when she was in the hospital receiving treatment for pain in her back that evening, the hospital wing in which she was collapsed

About 70 patients were killed, as were many medical staff, as well as Kaya at SSK Hospital in the Mediterranean city of Iskenderun, one of the places most affected by the earthquakes. When Kaya's grandson, Alikan Kenar, came to the hospital two hours after the quake, he saw that the building's floors had been flattened. Kaya's body was found in the basement four days later. "She was still in her bed, holding the Koran," Kennar said.

This pattern of destruction in Iskenderun is due to the corruption of the Turkish construction industry. In nearby Antakya, a city on the eastern Anatolian rift, all buildings, both historic and modern, were damaged or even destroyed, but in Iskenderun the older buildings still stand while the most recent ones have collapsed. Besides the hospital that collapsed, there was a 12-storey building with deep cracks in its walls, while the house next to it, lower and more old was intact.

In 2013, the Turkish government issued a decision allowing confiscation of areas deemed dangerous. Iskenderun was classified as a hazardous disaster area due to its proximity to the seismic fault, which meant that these buildings had to be subject to stricter regulations. Urban development researcher Murat Güney studied how to map dangerous areas in Istanbul that lie north of the North Anatolian Seismic Rift. He concluded that decisions were based on profits, there were areas that were taken care of while others were left as they were.

A lot of money was spent on hospitals that were newly established by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, where about £14 billion was allocated to build 18 huge hospitals in large cities, and this was done in cooperation with the United Kingdom, and many senior officials of the Ministry of Health visited Britain in September 2014, and saw many British hospitals and introduced to many British contractors and consultants, and 22 British companies concerned with health care visited Turkey is organized by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

Ankara's hospital construction programme has been seen as an "irreplaceable opportunity" for British companies, with the potential to earn around £1.25bn on hospital planning, management, design and architectural drawing. The UK's Department for International Trade said: "As part of support for British companies around the world, some companies operating in Turkey have on some occasions been introduced to partners who work in the Turkish construction industry, or are partners in it."

The new hospitals that have been built have long been a source of pride for the government, and express how much it cares about the Turkish citizen, and this is what helped the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) win the elections.

The construction industry in general has been the driving force in moving the economy for the past 20 years, but after the recent earthquake it became clear that many buildings were not strictly compliant with earthquake regulations, especially in a country on a seismic fault zone. It will be revealed in the coming days whether British companies were involved in the construction of hospitals that violate seismic specifications.