Videos show Turkish president bragging about builders skirting construction codes

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been accused of granting amnesty for buildings that didn’t meet earthquake construction codes. Photo: dpa
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been accused of granting amnesty for buildings that didn’t meet earthquake construction codes. Photo: dpa
Resurfaced videos from 2019 show Turkey’s president boasting about granting amnesty for buildings that didn’t meet earthquake construction codes, according to local media.
The videos of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are circulating widely in Turkey as the death toll from this month’s devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake surpassed 37,000 people.
Erdogan is seen in the videos speaking on the campaign trail in 2019, boasting of having removed building standards-related headaches for hundreds of thousands of citizens with his amnesty policy.