Turkey's Erdogan boasted letting builders avoid earthquake codes

earthquakes likely contributed to the soaring death toll.





A Turkish soldier walks by destroyed buildings in Hatay, on Sunday, nearly a week after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the country's southeast.

Yasin Akgul/AFP via Getty Images

In another 2019 campaign stop, in southern Turkey's Hatay province, Erdogan was again eager to tout the housing his government was creating.



"We have solved the problems of 205,000 citizens of Hatay with zoning peace," he said, using another name for the amnesties being used to facilitate construction practices that could leave buildings unable to withstand earthquakes.



The videos were reported by Turkish news sites such as Duvar and Diken, and have circulated widely.



Duvar cited a senior Istanbul city official, Bugra Gokce, who gave a breakdown of the tens of thousands of building amnesty certificates granted before the 2018 general election in 10 provinces struck by the earthquake. They included more than 40,000 amnesty certificates in the hard-hit Gaziantep province, the official said.



The amnesty meant that some builders had to pay a fine but their construction projects could go forward if they didn't meet coimagede restrictions, according