Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan acknowledged that his government had lacked in responding to Sunday's earthquake in Van on the 24 hours of the disaster, but now, he added, the situation is almost completely under control.

Erdoðan said at a meeting of his AK party (Justice and Development): “I admit that we failed in the beginning within the first 24 hours. But this is normal. This happens all around the world.”

So for the prime minister everywhere in the world the first 24 hours after an earthquake is "normal" that things are not done properly. Clearly this is not the case as shown in many tragic disaster around the world. But more to the point in a country like Turkey particularly vulnerable to earthquakes because it sits on major geological fault lines, to state that the population can't expect a prompt and efficient aid system for the first 24 hours after a quake it is simply unacceptable. It amounts to condemn to death hundreds if not thousands. What does it mean? That the government is not ready to invest more on prevention (i.e. stricter regulations and controls on building criteria to start with) and on training aid workers?

This declaration by a prime minister is a real outrage.

And what followed is even more worrying as Erdoðan added that the Turkish Red Crescent (Kýzýlay) had sent 17,836 tents to the disaster region, which he said was more than enough for victims, but could not be distributed equally due to a lack of coordination. Again, lack of coordination? and who is supposed to look after the coordination? Why there is no coordination team in place?

Erdoðan has many questions to answers to. But he would certainly avoid doing that.