Disaster Management Perspective of the November 20, 2003 Events in Istanbul, Turkey (From Understanding and Responding to Terrorism, P 375-382, 2007, Huseyin Durmaz, Bilal Sevinc, et al., eds. -- See NCJ-224814)

• NCJ Number: 224848
• Author(s): Derin N. Ural
• Date Published: 2007
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: IOS Press
• Publication Format: Book Chapter
• Publication Type: Case Study
• Language: English
• Country: Netherlands

Annotation

Using a disaster management perspective, this paper assesses the handling of two terrorist events that occurred in Istanbul, Turkey, on November 20, 2003, and compares this assessment with that of the Oklahoma City bombing in the United States.

Abstract

A precursor to the November 20th events was bombings at two Jewish synagogues in the city on a day of worship. The attacks on November 20th involved bombings at the HSBC Bank in Levent and the General Consulate of Great Britain in Beyoglu. This paper describes the response and recovery stages and compares them to what occurred in response to the bombing in Oklahoma City. The four phases of disaster management are assessed for these man-made disasters: preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. The effectiveness of the response is based on assessment of the level of damage mitigated by emergency medical services, search and rescue, communications, and the role of the media. The assessment found varying degrees of success, shortcomings, and challenges in the responses in Istanbul and Oklahoma City. Both Istanbul and Oklahoma City had emergency response plans in police, mitigation strategies, resources for response, and policies for recovery; however, both responses had varying degrees of success. Six tables provide descriptions and assessments of the attacks in the two cities. The tables compare the characteristics of the events, the damage sustained, emergency medical services, search and rescue following the events, communication, and the role of the media. 1 figure, 8 tables and 19 references