After the earthquake in Turkey comes the reckoning. “Why are we not ready?”

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KARAMANMERAS, Turkey – After an earthquake killed thousands near Istanbul in 1999, a young Islamist who served as the city’s mayor furthered his political career by drinking tea with survivors in their tents and wondering, Where is the state?

Now as President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces his own earthquake test. Five days after the twin earthquakes that left more than 20,000 dead, Turkey’s grief has turned to anger — much of it directed against Erdogan’s government, which has spent years consolidating its control over Turkish institutions, including the country’s disaster relief organizations.

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