No sooner had an earthquake and tsunami unleashed a series of events that led to disaster for a Japanese nuclear reactor than Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkey planned to erect nuclear power stations in an earthquake zone.
If a disaster occurred in Japan, if it is likely in Iran, why not have Turkey make the same mistake for a third time? “We are now counting the months, even weeks, before we start our project with Russia for the nuclear plant at Akkuyu [in Mersin, on the Mediterranean],” Erdogan told reporters last month.
Alas, not only would the reactor be vulnerable to the devastating earthquakes which strike Turkey every decade or so, but Turkish construction is notoriously shoddy. No worries, though. “There is no investment without risk,” Erdogan helpfully explained. When Erdogan rushes the state into a massive construction project, it usually involves pushing contracts toward his son-in-law’s Calik Holding. But as long as it enriches Erdogan and his family, what’s a few tens of thousands dead? If the worst-case scenario happens, if a natural disaster, PKK terrorism, or simple incompetence destroys Erdogan’s nuclear power plant, one thing is certain. He’ll find a way to blame the Jews.
