The role of the state in the Turkish earthquake of 1999

This paper seeks to contextualise the 1999 Turkish earthquake within the institutional structure of Turkey's development. Particularly focussed upon the role—and culpability—of the state in the disaster, it outlines a number of key continuities within Turkey's political tradition. In all, it argues that Ankara's inadequate response can be understood both in terms of the persistence of these older social structures and in a more recent weakening of the public sector. Despite a pronounced sense of instrumental activism which emerged in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the result, it is concluded, is a perpetuation of both state insularity and a fragmented pattern of civil organisation.