Erdogan vows to punish shoddy builders ahead of polls

BLOOMBERG 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to punish breakers of construction-safety regulations in the wake of February’s deadly earthquakes, a move to distance himself from the devastation brought by tens of thousands of building collapses.
“We will squeeze them into a corner,” Erdogan said in an interview with with CNN-Turk television. “It will be included in crimes that can’t be pardoned.”
The aftermath of the Turkey earthquakes, which killed at least 50,000 people, has become a major talking point ahead of May 14 presidential elections. Erdogan is looking to extend his two-decade rule and is facing his toughest test yet from a united opposition, and critics say he is responsible for allowing builders to skip safety rules to win support in previous votes.
The collapse of at least 173,000 buildings has turned a spotlight on how builders sacrificed safety for speed and cost-savings during a construction boom. Companies have been known to remove supporting columns from some shops and parking lots, and make changes in bearing walls, building doors and windows.
Erdogan said his government is determined to tear down weak buildings, especially in Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul, with a population of 16 million people.
The construction of new residential areas along a multi-billion dollar Canal Istanbul, an alternative to Istanbul’s Bosporus strait, could allow the government to move people from risky areas of the city, Erdogan said. He cited the low-income Avcilar district — which suffered the most damage in 1999 earthquakes near Istanbul that killed over 18,000 people — as one area which must be evacuated.