QOTD -- Erdogan's Earthquake

 

"The government’s response to Monday’s earthquake was once again slow. In Antakya, my family had to dig out loved ones trapped under the rubble with their bare hands. AFAD staff showed up 48 hours later, only to tell us that they couldn’t help because they had orders to focus their rescue operations elsewhere. The Turkish military could have played a role here, too, but Erdogan did not dispatch troops early enough to help with the search and rescue efforts. Turkish civil society organizations, which played a critical role after the 1999 earthquake, were not there, either. All these failures are the result of Erdogan’s policy of centralizing power in his own hands, sapping institutions of their independence, appointing loyalists who lack the necessary background to key posts, and wiping out civil society organizations that do not back his agenda." -- Gonul Tol, founding director of the Middle East Institute’s Turkey program, in Foreign Policy. Raise your hand if you think Sweden and Finland belong in NATO more than autocrat Erdogan's Turkey.

To assist victims of the Turkey-Syria earthquake, please head over to Charity Navigator for highly- rated charities providing relief and recovery in the devastated areas.