Heritage Disaster: Preservation and Destruction in Eastern Turkey after the February 6 Earthquake (20 min)

Presenters

Laurent Dissard, ‘Université Fédérale de Toulouse

Abstract

The February 6 earthquake was one of the strongest ever recorded on the southern part of the eastern Anatolian fault line. The shock caused a 200-km-long and 25-km-deep rupture, as well as a 3 m displacement of the Anatolian plate. This major shift brought an unprecented number of buildings across large cities to collapse, killing more than 59,000 people and leaving millions without food or shelter. As residues of asbestos, lead, and microplastics polluted the air, the fear of a cholera epidemic also emerged. The disaster caused disbelief, pain, and mourning among the population. Twenty-four years after the 1999 Izmit earthquake, the country seemed less prepared than before. Antiseismic regulations had not been fully respected and “earthquake resistant” buildings did not meet the challenge. February 6 was by no means a “natural” disaster and anger was quickly directed against corrupt real estate developers and President Erdoğan, who based the country's economic growth on the construction sector over the last two decades. His AK Parti has taken pride in building roads, hospitals, airports, and other infrastructures, many of which did not resist the earthquake. In the end, the disaster mirrors many of the failures of the current presidential regime. This presentation explores the concept of heritage disaster to examine Turkey's February 6 earthquake from the perspective of heritage and memory studies. It asks, more specifically, (1) How have archaeologists and other heritage experts (whose priority they might argue is to preserve) dealt with destruction in eastern Turkey? (2) How disasters ranging from earthquakes to armed conflicts, military repression, acts of terrorism, or ethnic genocide in eastern Turkey inform our conception of what heritage can stand for? Finally, (3) How have cultural memories of earthquakes in local communities been connected with other remembrances of heritage disasters in the region?