European Journal of Economic and Political Studies Managing Public’s Complacency and Public Preparedness in Response to 2006 Avian Influenza Crisis in Turkey Naim Kapucu, Sitki Corbacioglu, Vener Garayev, and Ulvi Saran Abstract Public complacency is one of the problems complicating emergency preparedness and response operations for disaster managers. Effective disaster management is possible to the extent that affected communities cooperate with disaster management. Focusing on the 2006 avian influenza crisis in Turkey, this article analyzes whether the strategies and tools used by government agencies responsible for disaster management were effective in reducing public complacency, and, thus, increasing overall perceived public prepared- ness and response. Specifically, communication tools used for information collection, organization and dissemination were analyzed to see whether they led increased public situational awareness and immediate public reaction to the crisis. Findings suggest that government’s internal preparation and use of communication tools had an impact on the level of the information the public exposed to, while reduced complacency or public reac- tion to the crisis had an impact on the overall perceived public preparedness. Key Words: Bird flu, avian influenza, public emergency preparedness, emergency information management, crisis communication, crisis management. 41 -3 (1), 2010