Footage emerged of Turkey's president promoting a policy that weakened building standards, per local media.
Ahead of 2019 elections, Erdoğan boasted of how the policy helped hundreds of thousands of people.
At least 70,000 buildings in areas where last week's earthquake struck used the policy, experts say.
Resurfaced videos from 2019 show Turkey's president boasting about granting amnesty for buildings that didn't meet earthquake construction codes, according to local media.
The videos of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are circulating widely in Turkey as the death toll from this month's devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake surpassed 33,000 people.
Erdoğan made similar boasts in campaign stops in the cities of Hatay and Malatya, both also now ravaged by the earthquake, Duvar reported.
Estimates vary as to how many buildings in the earthquake zone had taken advantage of the amnesty policy. »