Coping with Natural Disasters: The Politics of Turkey’s Earthquakes

Join us in this interdisciplinary discussion to understand the geological, civil engineering, social, economic, and political dimensions of the recent earthquakes in Turkey. As geographers generally agree, there is no such thing as a natural disaster. Natural processes occur all the time, but in every phase of such events (causes, vulnerability, how prepared one may be, what happens, what the response looks like, and how one rebuilds), there are tremendous social causes that determine who lives and who dies.

During his visit to the region after the earthquakes, Turkish President Erdogan said "it was impossible to prepare for the scale of this disaster." While recognizing the catastrophic magnitude of the event, we want to ask the question "Was it really impossible to better prepare?"

With the help of the experts here, we will unpack and situate the earthquakes within politics.