Why is neutral Switzerland one of the countries with the most shelters in the world?

Why is neutral Switzerland one of the countries with the most shelters in the world?

With the Russia-Ukraine war, the importance of bunkers in civil defense came to the fore again. While Switzerland, known for its neutrality, is one of the countries with the most shelters in the world, serious studies were carried out in this field in Turkey during the Second World War.

A historic neutrality was broken when Switzerland decided to freeze the assets of Russian billionaires. The Treaty of Lausanne, in which many international meetings took place and the foundations of the Republic of Turkey, which was not a party to either world war, were also signed in Switzerland.

While the shelters, which are on the agenda with the Russian occupation of Ukraine, are built in many countries of the world for reasons such as natural disasters or war, Switzerland is one of the countries with the most shelters in the world. (with 320 thousand units)

Swiss politicians did not rule out the possibility of a new major conflict in the world after the Second World War. Especially at the beginning of the 1960s, when the Cold War rose and the Cuban missile crisis was experienced, the question of “What will we do in a war?” began to be voiced very loudly in the country.

A law enacted in 1963 stipulated that “Every citizen should have a shelter near his home where he can be protected”. After that, building shelters across the country became a state policy. It was standard for all the shelters to be ventilated and have armored doors. In this mountainous country, the protection of citizens from danger in this way is called ‘vertical evacuation’.

USED ​​AS A GYM AND STUDY ROOM
Prior to the Russia-Ukraine war, the bunkers could have been used as gymnasiums and study rooms, as there was no recent nuclear threat. Laurent Paoliello, who works in the security, population and health department in the canton of Geneva, said: “Some were jokingly asking us, ‘Are you going to take Swiss citizens to shelter in case of danger?’ “If there is a bombing, we will not ask anyone for their papers, we will take everyone to the shelters,” he says.

Nuclear panic started across Switzerland, especially after Russia hit Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhia. While citizens go to pharmacies to buy iodide tablets, the Federal Public Health Agency said that in case of a nuclear leak, enough tablets to fill the entire population can be distributed within 12 hours.

THE NUMBER INCREASED 100 THOUSAND IN 7 YEARS
In the 1960s, the widespread use of public shelters in West Germany and the USA was discussed, but the project was abandoned. With the entry of Soviet tanks into Budapest in 1956, the Swiss Federal Council had already begun to think seriously about bunkers. After the law in 1963, the number of shelters, which was 50 thousand throughout the country, increased to 100 thousand in 1970.

Historian Silvia Berger Ziauddin says, “Switzerland’s budget for civil defense was equivalent to that of the United States in 1970. Two-thirds of that budget went to construction activities,” she says.

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