Turkey earthquakes: Collapsed buildings probe widens

The government of Turkey has said that more than 600 people are being looked into because of buildings that fell down during the deadly earthquake on February 6.

On Saturday, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said that 184 suspects had already been arrested, including construction workers and property owners.

Experts have been saying for years that many new buildings are unsafe because of the way the government is run and how much corruption there is.

Now, more than 50,000 people are known to have died in Turkey and Syria.

Mr. Bozdag made the TV comments from south-eastern Turkey, where the 7.8 magnitude quake happened and where another strong quake happened just a few hours later.

His comments showed that the investigation had grown. Two weeks ago, the authorities said that 113 arrest warrants had been issued.

Turkish media said that one of the people who have been arrested is the mayor of a town near where the quakes happened.

After the earthquakes, more than 160,000 buildings in Turkey collapsed or were badly damaged. This makes people wonder if human mistakes made the natural disaster worse.

Some construction experts and parties in opposition accuse President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government of not following building rules and trying to shift the blame for the disaster.

They say that the government has given so-called amnesties to contractors who didn’t follow building rules in order to encourage a building boom, even in areas that are prone to earthquakes.

Mr. Erdogan has admitted that he has made mistakes, but he seems to blame fate for how bad things are.

“Things have always gone this way. It’s in the plans of fate, “he said when he went to the area not long ago.

After 20 years in power, Mr. Erdogan’s future is uncertain because elections are coming up, and his calls for national unity have not been heard.