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When we were thinking about building a house in Turkey, I was the one insistent on doing everything by the book. I demanded a geological survey at the outset before we took it any further. My wife had been keen on building further up the hill for better, unobstructed views across the Black Sea. She identified a hazelnut grove, already flat, upon which appear to be remnants of an ancient building. But whatever her wishes, the ground survey came back negative: we’d be digging down metres to hit rock before we could even start.

Once we had identified a suitable location, I then insisted on following the law to the letter. I wanted detailed architectural plans and engineering drawings, signed off by the municipality’s planning department. They needed to send their own engineers to complete surveys, and write reports. And the reaction of the locals? They thought we were absolutely crazy. In the time we spent dealing with the planning bureaucracy, both locally and up in the provincial capital, another family built a gigantic modernist home without consent.

And in truth, that’s exactly what most families do. For them, the planning process is simply unaffordable. The only people who can afford it are (relatively) wealthy foreigners like us, and business people. Ordinary people just go ahead with construction, hoping either that they don’t get caught, or that planning consent will be granted after the fact. Attempts to enforce the law more stringently is met with severe resistance by locals.

Indeed, just after he provided us with planning consent, the head of planning at the local council was physically assaulted by an individual who had been ordered to cease construction of a non-permitted development. Enforcement is complicated in our particular municipality by virtue of the administration being of the opposition Republican People’s Party, which by policy tries to resist all new laws enacted by central government even if, as in the case of planning laws, they exist to improve public safety.

Given what I have personally witnessed in our locality, I am not at all surprised that huge numbers of buildings contravene the more robust planning regulations introduced over recent years. I have no doubt whatsoever that bribes, backhanders, intimidation, threats and actual violence are regularly deployed to circumvent building codes. The reality is that Turkey is not an obedient nation overseen by an omnipotent leader capable of driving through far reaching reform.

With about 20% of the population living below the poverty line, the majority just do what they can to get by, even if that means living in substandard and often dangerous housing. In many Turkish cities, decent housing is simply unaffordable to ordinary people, with many being forced out of their areas by gentrification and overseas investment. Those people — the ordinary majority — are not going to be the ones moving into the high quality buildings now taking over their neighbourhoods.

In the twenty-one years I have been visiting Turkey, I have seen great change. Modern constructions methods generally show a massive improvement over the shoddy methods I’d see in the early 2000s. But that’s not to say they are necessarily fit for purpose, when living on the meeting points of several major tectonic plates. Even in the case of our own home, despite attempting to follow building codes to the letter, I still have doubts about aspects of our build. All we really have to go on is the word of our architect and the building inspectors who signed it off.

Unfortunately, as we have seen so tragically, such trust can often be sorely misplaced when corruption and ineptitude is rife. May God have mercy on those wronged by the corrupt and incompetent.

Woe to those who give short measure, who demand of other people full measure for themselves, but give less than they should when it is they who weigh or measure for others! Do these people not realise that they will be raised up on a mighty day, a day when everyone will stand before the Lord of the worlds?

Quran 83:1-6