An expected earthquake hit the eastern city of Elazığ on January 24.  Although Turkish authorities acted surprised by this “unpredictable” natural event, it was not a surprise to earth scientists who had been talking about, saying, shouting, screaming on TVs for years that an earthquake this size to hit near Elazığ was only a matter of time.

By showing two very powerful and active faults that crossed right where the earthquake happened last night, the scientists were only pointing to the disaster that was to happen.

As always, neither the Turkish authorities nor the government did anything about this threat.

Elazığ is a city in Eastern Turkey. The region is historically Kurdish and Armenian. Since the Armenian Genocide of 1915 not many Armenians are left there. That leaves the region mostly Kurdish with Turks who have moved, due to population politics of the early republic to the region.

Eastern Turkey is not a place where investments go. The region suffers from lack of factories, plants, production. Add the indifference of the Turkish state to the problems there, the picture gets worse. Investing to the areas where the Kurds live is not high in the list of issues Turkish government deals with.

In the 1990’s when Turkey attacked the Kurdish citizens in the East with its full force, it used methods borrowed from the US’ attack on Vietnam under the program called “Scorched Earth.” Whole villages and towns were burned by the Turkish forces and the entire population of certain areas were forcefully relocated leaving the area barren. This is how the agriculture, animal husbandry, and literally everything collapsed in the area which used to be the “breadbasket” of Turkey.

Left to its own, the region tried to recover from the devastation of the 1990’s and 2000’s.

So, it is not surprising that even though the professors came on TV to emphasize again and again that the region would be devastated when the earthquake happened, it fell on deaf ears. Nobody cared.

Turkish government has been collecting a tax for “Earthquake Relief” for years. Many thought the money collected from this tax would be used for prevention or for help when the disaster happened.

When there are existing solutions and protection against natural disasters and in the 21^st century these easy and doable measures are not implemented, destruction is not the fault of the nature but human ignorance and stupidity is to blame.

Engineers and architects have repeatedly cautioned that the buildings, even the new ones, were not up to code in case of an earthquake. They were completely ignored when the pro-government building contractors were given a free hand to do and build however they wanted to for a quick buck.

Even the government built (TOKI) low income housing units did not comply with safety code.  One of the first buildings that toppled in the earthquake was the TOKI built low income building.

Evidently the tax monies collected for earthquake prevention was not spent in Elazığ.

But this begs a bigger question. Where the hell is all that collected money?

For the answers, we have to turn to the Red Crescent organization, similar to the Red Cross elsewhere in the world.

It was a total scandal that in the first few minutes after the disaster struck, the head of the Red Crescent, Kerem Kınık, tweeted, no, not about how the aid was being rushed to the area. No. He tweeted that this was the time to get together and start sending money to the Red Crescent.

He was begging for money using the earthquake and deaths in the community as an opportunity!

As years of neglect, corruption, military rule, forced poverty, deindustrialization, ignorance, planned destruction of agriculture and life in the region all came together culminating in the unnecessary deaths, injuries, loss of homes, Red Crescent decided to collect money from the people, exploiting their feelings to help.

However, the reaction to this exploitation became so severe that Kerem Kırık had to delete his tweet before the end of the day.

The reaction to Turkish Red Crescent did not subside though.  As the need to help the effected people grew, more scandalous information started to come out on where the money allocated to Red Crescent had been used over the years.

It has been a trend in the recent years for the high officials to compete with each other on the model/make cars the government buys for them.  Each year the government officials, even the low-level ones now, buy a new luxurious car and show it off to others to claim better status. The latest model Audis and Mercedes can be found as official cars at all levels of the AKP Islamic government. The head of the Religious Affairs Department who just ordered the ordinary Muslims to live a modest life had raised quite a lot of eyebrows when he insisted on being driven in an official, latest model and very high priced Mercedes.

Red Crescent too was in the race for luxurious cars.   Getting a grant of 3 million and 700 thousand TL from the World Food Program Red Crescent immediately bought 10 four-wheel-drive expensive SUVs.   These were justified as “being able to reach remote villages” in times of emergency.

The spending spree in the Turkish Red Crescent was not secular as religious organizations tied very closely with the Islamic government got their fair share from the loot.   A sect called Menzil is the most strongly represented In the AKP’s multi sect government.

The way sects work and obtain money is through their “business” enterprises that get government contracts.  One of the enterprises Menzil sect works with is “Techno Health” whose owner is related to the Menzil.  The Red Crescent gave a project worth 716 million TL to this business. An official in Red Crescent has reportedly said, “There are a lot of people working in the Red Crescent who are tied to the Menzil sect. I think the project was given to them because of these relationships.”

The business class in Turkey experienced a shift in their organizations after AKP took power. A small organization called MUSIAD known as the “independent” business owners but representing mostly the town-and-country small businesses were given contracts by the government to grow and compete with the “secular” industrialists. This support by the government produced the expected result as MUSIAD too grew and became a mainstream business organization in Turkey. However, it is known mostly for its pro-religious views and of course, government ties.

Red Crescent recently rented a building belonging to MUSIAD. The building was heavily damaged but this did not prevent the Red Crescent to rent it for a hefty 110,000TL. Independent real estate agents have valued the rent for the building at 67,000 which shows Red Crescent was paying a rent nearly twice the worth value. Many also pointed out the bogus rent valuation report obtained by Red Crescent.

A problematic businessman Ethem Sancak seems to be favored by the AKP government as he appears in nearly every government contract.  He owns newspapers where he declared he was in love with the president Erdoğan once. Ethem Sancak’s nephew owns a corporation, MAXICELL, and miraculously this corporation won the contract to collect blood donations for the Red Crescent. This contract alone elevated the government allied MAXICELL to a monopoly position in the field.

When it came to providing relief for overseas, the Red Crescent was very active. The organization hired a plane to fly aid to Yemen.  However, for some reason the plane was not allowed to fly out of the airport because permits were not secured. What flew out that day was the 245,000 US dollars that went to renting the plane which was paid full in advance.

The jihadi terrorists of course had to get their share from the Turkish Red Crescent. Fighting against the terrorists in its territory, when the Syrian army launched an attack on the jihadis in Idlib province, the Turkish Red Crescent was there to collect money over the social media to help the head cutting gangsters fight Syrian forces.

Just when people were wondering where all the money collected for earthquake preparedness was, a new information surfaced that the Red Crescent had rented a mansion at the Bosporus. This area is one of the most expensive places for real estate not only in Turkey but also in the world.

The mansion has spectacular water views and has a swimming pool for the relaxation of the employees! Never mind the 12,000 US dollar price tag for each month because the organization shows this building as a necessity.  However, the building needed repairs so an extra 600,000TL was spent of fixing the offices for this rented mansion.

This much activity needs people happy with their jobs if things are to get done. Ibrahim Altan, the general manager of the Red Crescent received a 118% increase in the last four years in his pay check and is receiving 31,500TL a month. Other managers also received 170% increase in the same period. However, regular workers only received a 10% increase in a country where inflation is very high.

Now everyone is questioning whether this spending is the reason why the Red Crescent had to ask people to pay for the earthquake relief aid.  There has been no report yet of where the collected monies through the “earthquake tax” went while the people in Elazığ are trying to dig their dead from under the rubble with their own efforts.