20 DECEMBER 1942 ERBAA-NIKSAR EARTHQUAKE AND ITS SOCIAL DIMENSIONS IN THE LIGHT OF A REPORT

Abstract

The Second World War was effective in a process in which a single-party government was dominant in Turkey and the destruction caused by the recent history in the country and human resources was tried to be rehabilitated. Effects of the war on community life, large-scale earthquakes in Erzincan and Erbaa; It created a temporality in which the central government was tested within the framework of criteria such as comprehensive organization, financial capacity and human resources to socialize it effectively, infrastructure and transportation, and supervision of personnel who play an active role in the implementation of the organizations. Following the earthquake, the Şükrü Saracoğlu Government implemented practices and regulations aimed at eliminating the negativities caused by the disaster in the Erbaa and Niksar regions. In this context, steps were taken to improve the situation of the residents in the areas of first aid, search and rescue, subsistence, shelter, treatment, taxation, reconstruction and production. VI. Term CHP Tokat Deputy Hasip Ahmet Aytuna had the opportunity to observe the government's attempts to rehabilitate the negativities in the disaster area and their results, by carrying out an examination tour covering the settlements where the disaster took place on January 1-10, 1943, after the 1942 Erbaa Earthquake. Aytuna, who met with the citizens in Tokat, Erbaa, Niksar and Zile, witnessed the dimensions of the disaster on the one hand and determined that a significant part of the problems were caused by the war conditions. Aytuna made a report of his examinations, interviews, observations and evaluations and presented them to the General Secretariat of the Republican People's Party. The report includes the statistical data of the destruction that occurred after the disaster, the measures taken by the central government and the local bureaucracy, their effects on the field, their deficiencies, problems in agricultural production, the reflections of the taxation policy at the local level, corruption and their own evaluations regarding them. Aytuna's detailed report, consisting of 21 pages, is on the axis of a natural disaster experienced in a social context where war is decisive; It has created a basis that allows us to understand the relations between the central government, local bureaucracy and the public.