The effectiveness of municipal services in rural areas converted to neighborhoods after Law No. 6360 during disaster periods

The core instruments of decentralization policies in Turkey are municipalities, special provincial administrations, and village administrations. Metropolitan municipality (BŞB) administrations, a type of municipal governance that has undergone various transformations, reached their current structure with the Law No. 6360. Consequently, approximately 93.4% of Turkey's population began living in urban areas. This law incorporated former village units into the city boundaries, converting them into neighborhood (mahalle) status, and imposed new social, political, and economic responsibilities on the residents. The first goal is to reveal whether there has been a change in service provision in response to the responsibilities assigned to the new neighborhood units (formerly villages) that were included in the metropolitan municipality service area with Law No. 6360, and if a change occurred, which service areas experienced positive or negative outcomes. The second goal is to focus on the roles metropolitan municipalities undertook in disaster management, considering the experiences of the February 6, 2023 Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes, and analyzing what kind of responsibility metropolitan municipalities should assume in disaster management. Data was obtained through a literature review and a field study using the semi-structured interview technique, a qualitative research method, with samples from Kahramanmaraş and Gaziantep, the epicenters of the February 6th Earthquakes. Furthermore, it was observed that extending the service area for BŞBs to the provincial borders post-Law 6360 resulted in insufficient service delivery, and the effects of this deficiency were seen during disaster periods, where services could not be delivered to the most distant village-neighborhoods. On the other hand, the lack of sufficient authority and resources granted to BŞBs for disaster management in the legislation highlighted another important dimension of the problem. Based on the data obtained, the study concludes that the necessary powers for disaster management should be integrated into the municipal structure with a comprehensive service delivery approach.