VZCZCXRO0946
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAK #6624/01 3430918
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 090918Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY ANKARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0251
INFO RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEHDA/AMCONSUL ADANA 1413
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 1769
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1521
RHEBAAA/DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY WASHDC
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006624 
 
SIPDIS 
 
PLEASE PASS TO USGS FOR MFOOSE AND ESAFAK 
USAID FOR OFDA 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID SENV EINV TU
SUBJECT:  TURKEY'S DISASTER MANAGEMENT - STILL UNTESTED - STILL IN 
NEED OF STREAMLINING 
 
REF: A) ANKARA 3436 
B) ISTANBUL 1098 
C) ISTANBUL 693 
 
ANKARA 00006624  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Sensitive But Unclassified.  Please handle accordingly. 
 
¶1.  This is an Action Request.  See Paragraph 2. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY: After the devastating 1999 Marmara earthquake, 
the World Bank made recovery loans contingent on broad changes in 
Turkey's building codes and disaster management mechanisms.  This 
included creation of a "Turkish Emergency Management Directorate" 
(TEMA), which was established in 2000.  Although Turkey's disaster 
preparation and planning has clearly improved since the earthquake, 
responsibility is still shared by a variety of players, and TEMA is 
still relatively new and untested in its critical coordinating role 
for a multitude of local, provincial, and national players. 
Legislation that would clarify and streamline its coordinating role 
has been held up by bureaucratic infighting.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (U) ACTION REQUEST: TEMA Director Hasan Ipek asked for USG 
assistance in gaining training at FEMA for six young disaster 
experts in his agency.  Ipek noted that FEMA would be the most 
suitable source of expert training, because TEMA is modeled after 
FEMA and uses comparable information management systems.  Ipek noted 
that TEMA has the mandate for the functions carried out by both U.S. 
FEMA and OFDA.  Please contact David Young at Embassy Ankara 
(YoungDK@state.gov) to follow up. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) BACKGROUND: Turkey is highly vulnerable to a major 
earthquake, especially the population mass centered around Istanbul 
and the Marmara Sea.  Turkey's response to the August 1999 - 7.4 
magnitude earthquake that killed more than 17,000 people was widely 
criticized as slow, insufficient, and uncoordinated.  As a 
consequence, the World Bank's Marmara Earthquake Emergency 
Reconstruction Project (MEER, 2000-2004) required the establishment 
of the Turkish Emergency Management Direcorate (TEMA or TAY in 
Turkish) under the Prime Ministry, along with other changes in 
building codes and regulation. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
TEMA Still Struggling - can it really coordinate? 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Under the umbrella of the Prime Ministry, TEMA acts as the 
national central coordinating body for natural disaster preparedness 
for all relevant government bodies.  TEMA was created under 2000 
legislation, but has slowly been gaining competence and authority. 
A 2005 law assigned it the critical role of coordinating national 
disaster response, but a newer law that would provide further 
clarity and empowerment to TEMA and streamline the organizational 
structure has faced bureaucratic resistance and has failed to move 
out of the Prime Ministry.  TEMA Director Hasan Ipek told us that 
the GOT has been unable to do away with excessive bureaucracy, 
streamline multiple agency involvement, and clarify TEMA's 
coordinating role, which could have a negative effect on effective 
and timely coordination in the event of the "big one" that everyone 
expects some day. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) TEMA's resources and personnel remain limited.  For the 
moment located in cramped offices downtown, TEMA plans to move to a 
new crisis coordination center outside Ankara at the end of this 
year.  As a result of the 1999 earthquake, there are now a variety 
of new and old crisis centers operating at the local and national 
levels, which will all in turn require overall national 
coordination, the role assigned to TEMA.  A natural disaster would 
be handled first at the Provincial level; TEMA's role would be 
activated if the disaster's scale demanded resources beyond the 
scope of the province and the request for help was made to Ankara. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) According to Ipek, in the event of a serious national 
disaster, there would be three levels of control: a) an ad hoc 
Crisis Coordination Board under the chairmanship of the Deputy Prime 
Minister; b) an oversight board under the chairmanship of the Prime 
Ministry Undersecretary; and c) a crisis management secretariat 
under the formal leadership of the PM Deputy Undersecretary - but 
effectively led by TEMA.  At each level, there would be 
representatives of the military and relevant ministries and agencies 
(MFA, Interior, Public Works and Settlement, Red Crescent), 
depending on the nature of the crisis. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) TEMA is also tasked to coordinate receipt and distribution 
 
ANKARA 00006624  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
of relief supplies from voluntary agencies.  For example, TEMA 
worked with the UN and Red Crescent to coordinate delivery of public 
and private assistance totaling $13 million in Lebanon.  MFA is the 
lead for coordinating international assistance in the event of a 
disaster in Turkey. 
 
------------ 
Red Crescent 
------------ 
 
¶8.  (SBU) The General Directorate of the Turkish Red Crescent (TRC) 
has responsibility for organizing rapid disaster response and 
assisting in the delivery of international and national humanitarian 
aid.  TRC has rebuilt itself after most of its management faced 
charges of irregularities in public tenders and abuse of office in 
the wake of the 1999 earthquake.  TRC opened a new Emergency 
Operations Center (AFOM) outside of Ankara, modeled after the 
American Red Cross' Disaster Operations Center in Falls Church, 
Virginia. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Like Ipek, Red Crescent General Manager Omer Tasli cited 
the U.S. FEMA model as the best in the world.  He emphasized that 
Turkey was much better prepared than in 1999, but stressed that 
Turkey still had a long way to go and that the passage of time had 
unfortunately diminished the sense of urgency on disaster readiness. 
 Tasli expressed disappointment at the GOT's failure to advance the 
legislation which would clarify and streamline TEMA's coordinating 
role.  He described a surfeit of competing general directorates at 
various ministries that were loathe to give up power and positions. 
 
 
-------------------------------- 
COMMENT: Can They Work Together? 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU) The key question is how well these disparate entities 
(with their own structures, budgets, and agendas) can work together. 
 Although created in 2000, TEMA was effectively started only in 2003 
with a modest budget and presence, and received full legal 
authorization only last year.  TEMA has organized regular training 
and disaster simulations to facilitate pre-disaster planning and 
coordination among critical agencies, holding a first national scale 
simulation in February.  A recent simulation testing Istanbul's 
response and search and rescue capacity did not include observers 
from TEMA or MFA. In the event of a big disaster, Embassy would need 
to contact both MFA and TEMA to coordinate U.S. assistance. 
 
Wilson