Currently, the heart of Turkey and the world beats for the survivors of the 7.7 and 7.5 earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş. When we look at the past, there are mayors like Salih Gün, who survived the 1999 earthquake unscathed by taking the right steps and not even making concessions to his father.
We will tell about the mayor of Tavşancıl Municipality, whose epicenter of the 1999 earthquake was only 21 km away from Gölcük. Showing us that thousands of lives can be saved by following the rules and not making concessions to anyone. Salih Day former mayor named to contractors who use poor quality goods because they are cheaper, just because they share the same political view as him. deputies and administrators who provide rent opportunities to the wrong people. It should have been an example.
The scene before us is on this issue, regardless of the political party. we totally screwed up showing us. Well, the former mayor of Tavşancıl, who died in 2022 What did Salih Gün do to protect Tavşancıl, which was in the heart of the earthquake, from this disaster?
All Salih Gün actually did was to trust scientists.
Our country survived a great earthquake in 1999. This earthquake is The one in Gölcük was a 7.4 magnitude earthquake. Thousands of buildings were destroyed, we saw that the districts were destroyed as they are today. However, there was not a single slightly damaged building in Tavşancıl Municipality, which can be considered in the center of this region.
Salih Gün took over the head of Tavşancıl, which became a town municipality in 1987, in 1989.
Salih Day
The first steps that Salih Gün took during his mayoral term were those he took against the earthquake. After becoming president at Kocaeli University turned to scientists. Scientists have prepared for Tavşancıl. in the ground-study report They decided that this was an earthquake risk zone.
This region is indeed North Anatolian Fault LineIt was a region above. For this reason, the buildings on it had to be not very high and had to comply with certain conditions.
Gün prepared a zoning plan in the light of the report presented by scientists.
prof. Dr. Ugur Source
The most important issue in the zoning plan prepared by Gün was the floor limitation. The report showed that high-rise buildings in this region were more in danger of collapsing. Therefore Buildings should not be higher than 3 floors. Because of this decision, most of Tavşancıl people objected to Gün. Even his closest friends were offended by this decision.
However, Gün does not allow even his father to go the extra floor. “This is an earthquake zone, Dad, definitely not.” (From the statement made by Salih Gün’s daughter Nida Gün Dönmez to the BBC)
While the earthquake destroyed an entire region, nothing happened to Tavşancıl.
day, although from the past to the present Still criticized by some in Tavşancıl even though No buildings were damaged in the 1999 earthquake in the region. Gün, who saved the lives of thousands of people thanks to this strict and normative policy, always says, “I would rather lose votes than lose people,” according to the statements of her daughter Nida Gün Dönmez. was making up his sentence. The meaning of this sentence is felt much more deeply, especially these days.
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Editor note:
Instead of managers who do everything we want and try to win votes, those who do what is right in the light of scientific research We need mayors like Salih Gün and administrators like governors. The fact that a contractor makes an unsound building is actually due to the lack of adequate control by the managers. When we look at the essence of the matter, the people who will inspect the buildings built by the contractors are again the state administrators.
I hope we can save as many people and our animal friends as we can from the rubble of the Kahramanmaraş earthquake. Also for the next I wish to take more conscious steps.