In 1999, more than 17,000 people were killed in an earthquake near the Turkish city of Istanbul. In the aftermath, authorities promised stricter building regulations and introduced an “earthquake tax” aimed at improving preparedness in a country that sits on two major geological faultlines.
Ankara’s slow response to the disaster, however, played a large part in bringing Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development party (AKP) to power: the newly formed party won elections in 2002 by an overwhelming majority, promising transparency and to rebuild the economy, ruined by a stock market crash.
