A Turkish court has begun to hear the trial of 11 defendants concerning the death of 35 people from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), the majority of whom were high school volleyball players, during major earthquakes in Turkey in February, BBC Turkish service reported on Wednesday.
On February 6, devastating 7.8 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck Turkey, claiming over 50,000 lives and leaving millions homeless in 11 provinces in the country’s south and southeast. In Adıyaman province the Isias Hotel collapsed, killing 72 people, including 24 students, nine teachers and parents from the KKTC who had flown to the province to attend a student volleyball tournament. Only four people from the KKTC survived.
It was the biggest single tragedy in the history of the KKTC, which is recognized only by Ankara.
Having won their first match at the regional tournament, the KKTC high school volleyball team was asleep on the first and second floors of the Isias Hotel when the earthquake occurred.
The indictment accepted in December accuses the defendants, five of whom are under arrest including the hotel owner, of “causing the death and injury of more than one person with conscious negligence.”
The defendants are facing up to 22-and-a-half years in prison.
According to BBC, the complainants, including families of the deceased and KKTC Prime Minister Ünal Üstel, argue that the defendants should be tried on the charge of “probable intent,” which would require a heavier sentence.
The indictment says the building was illegally converted from a residence into a hotel in 2001.
It adds that the hotel had illegally erected an additional floor to the nine permitted by the original plan.
Üstel, who travelled to Adıyaman to follow the trial, has expressed his trust in the Turkish judicial system and that justice will be served.
The students who were killed in the earthquake are remembered as “champion angels” in the KKTC. Their families have established an association of the same name, aiming to pursue legal battles and run various projects on behalf of their children.
Ruşen Karakaya, president of the Champion Angels Association, said every individual involved in the construction of the Isias Hotel is guilty.
“All the defendants should be tried for homicide,” she said.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pervin Aksoy İpekçioğlu, a faculty member at the Law School of Doğu Akdeniz University who lost her 14-year-old daughter Serin in the tragedy and herself survived with injuries, said the indictment was written “quite timidly.”
She said Adıyaman was classified as a second-degree risk zone in 1996, three years after the beginning of the construction of the hotel building.
“Yet, when you converted it into a hotel in 2001, you took no precautions. … Later, you find yourself facing charges of conscious negligence. This is not plausible,” İpekçioğlu said.
The families and their lawyers also demand the inclusion of more people in the trial who played a role in the building’s poor construction standards.
“We want those people to tremble and lose sleep over their actions, to prevent them from doing this again,” lawyer Deniz Özbilgin said.
The first hearing of the trial, known as the “Champion Angels” case, is being heard by the Adıyaman 3rd High Criminal Court between January 3 and 5.