Parliamentary questions check into the ongoing reconstruction in quake-hit Hatay

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In Hatay, the southern province of Turkey that witnessed severe destruction in the February 6 earthquakes, the reconstruction plans and expropriation of lands and properties raise concerns among different sections of the society.

There are expropriation decisions taken in the Dikmece, Orhanlı, Toygarlı, Gülderen, Karaali, Üçgedik and Serinyol neighborhoods of the Antakya district and various parts of the Defne and Samandağ districts in the province.

Perihan Koca, Mersin MP of the Green and Left Party (YSP) submitted a parliamentary question (PQ) today (May 16) requesting Mehmet Özhaseki, the Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change to respond to.

Urgent expropriation decisions

In her PQ Koca asked the reasons for the urgent expropriation decisions in the Dikmece, Orhanlı, Toygarlı, Gülderen, Karaali, Üçgedik and Serinyol neighborhoods of the Antakya district, and further questioned why the official announcements related to these decisions were not being made public.

Koca reminded everyone that according to the law, overriding public interest should lie behind any urgent expropriation decision.

She asked if there was any overriding public interest in taking these urgent expropriation decisions that will "throw thousands of people off their living spaces, cause destruction in nature, will end sustainable agriculture activities and olive production."

Are Arab Alawites pushed into forced migration?

Koca further asked if it was true that there are public lands just next to the lands being expropriated, especially in the Gülderen and Dikmece villages.

"Which criteria is being used in determining the lands to be expropriated? Is it true that while the gardens, fields, and living spaces of the poor people in the region are included in the expropriation areas, the properties of the rich families, the ex-MPs, and the majors of the ruling party are being left out?

Koca also questioned in her PQ if the expropriation decisions, that followed the problems the local people faced from the first day of the deadly earthquakes, were a sign that the Arab Alevite people in the region are being pushed into forced migration, requesting the minister to answer.

Yıldırım-Kara's questions

Nermin Yıldırım-Kara, the newly elected Hatay MP of the Republican People's Party (CHP) yesterday directed her first PQ, again to Minister Özhaseki.

In her PQ she invited the Minister of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change to give information on the total number of buildings destroyed in the province, if it has been checked if the buildings of the public institutions in the city are earthquake-resistant, which plans there are for moving the settlements to more secure locations and for their reconstruction, what were the criteria for the companies to be invited for construction of the houses and if the Ministry was taking any measures concerning the large amount of asbestos that emerged, according to the statement by the Chamber of Environmental Engineers (ÇMO).

ÇMO announced that asbestos has been found in 90% of the samples taken from wreckages, Yıldırım-Kara reminded. She, therefore, asked about the plans for a waste disposal plan that will not cause any harm to the environment or human health.

(HA/VC/PE)