Thread by @andreasmoun

⏹️Heavy snow decimates #Turkey’s modernisation claims and exposes rampant corruption

⏩The most affected site due to heavy snowfall was the recently constructed ‘Istanbul Airport’. It was promoted as the dream project of #Erdogan.

👉Thread-Analysis

Turkey, which has been comparing its infrastructure and facilities with European standards, received heavy snowfall in the third week of January 2022, which caused havoc all around.

The Airport was closed, people were stranded on roads, one of the roofs of cargo terminal collapsed and traffic on highways was closed. However, authorities apparently blamed municipalities for not taking appropriate measures to tackle the situation.

The most affected site due to heavy snowfall was the recently constructed ‘Istanbul Airport’. It was promoted as the dream project of President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

This Airport witnessed collapsing of one of the roofs of cargo terminals after the heavy snowfall. The Istanbul Branch of the Chamber of Mechanical Engineers on January 24, 2022, clarified about the collapse of the cargo terminal’s roof, stating that it was unable to carry

the heavy burden of accumulated snow on rooftop. They further informed that it was “constructed without necessary calculations and by disregarding measures”.

Also, the structures did not undergo regular inspections during project designing, construction and on the use of Istanbul Airport.

Collapsing of roof of cargo terminal and miserable state at the airport was watched by about 3 million people in the videos shared by the airport staff.

Esin Koymen, the Istanbul Buyukkent Branch Chair of the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and

Architects (TMMOB) confirmed that no sound assessments were made from the available meteorological data and the airport was constructed at a site open to the north winds coming from the Black Sea. Further, the airport is inside the Northern Forests,

and therefore, constructed while wiping out forest lands and drainage basins. In addition to this, the entire ecological balance in the region changed with unplanned construction and dangerous excavation.

It was built while ignoring several warnings of experts on its wrong location. The airport, which was initially planned for construction at Silivri district under "Istanbul Environmental Plan 2009", however, later moved to the Northern Forests, popularly

referred as ‘lungs of Istanbul’. The ecologists have similarly warned on the disastrous consequences of
project ‘Canal Istanbul’, which is underway. Esin Koymen of TMMOB also compared Istanbul Airport with the Atatürk Airport, which received the same amount of

snowfall, but flights could land there and not at the Istanbul Airport. This is all because it was rightly constructed in terms of site selection and while considering crucial climatic data.

Despite the criticism, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and ruling AKP Spokesperson Omer Celik blamed the Istanbul municipality on January 26, 2022 for their failure to fight against the heavy snowfall. Kilicdaroglu posted (January 26) a video on Twitter about irregularities

in a tender held in 2018. He alleged that it was first awarded to a company for 3.3 billion lira. However, the same was later annulled and new tender was called in
2020 for a new bidder.

Kilicdaroglu charged that the cancellation of the tender was done because the winning company was not among the “gang of five” (known as “the quintet gang”). The five holding companies are reportedly closely linked to the government.

The ''gang of five'' consists of Limak Holding, Cengiz Holding, Kolin Construction, Kalyon Construction, and MNG Holding. They allegedly usurp most of the tenders and flout all norms to make profit, disregarding
environment and public safety warnings.