A Turkish court has begun to hear the trial of eight defendants concerning the death of at least 269 people when a luxury residential complex collapsed during major earthquakes in Turkey in February 2023, Turkish media outlets reported.
On February 6 of last year devastating 7.8 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck Turkey, claiming over 53,000 lives and leaving millions homeless in 11 provinces in the country’s south and southeast.
Hundreds of residents of the Rönesans Residence, located in Hatay’s ancient Antakya district, were buried in rubble when the earthquakes hit.
The residence complex with the shared amenities of a 5-star hotel was promoted as “a corner of paradise” when its foundation was first laid in 2011 by Antis Yapı.
Four defendants who appeared before a judge at the Hatay 3rd High Criminal Court on Thursday are in pretrial detention, while one is still at large. They face sentences of up to 22 years on charges of “causing the death and injury of more than one person with conscious negligence.”
Among the residents of the complex were people prominent in the city including diplomats and football players as well as well-to-do families.
Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu, who played for Turkish Super Lig club Hatayspor, team trainer Taner Savut and national handball player Cemal Kütahya were among the victims along with dozens of children.
The body of former Turkish ambassador Devrim Öztürk, a resident of Rönesans Residence, is still missing.
Dozens still missing
Although the number of those killed in the Rönesans Residence is officially 269 with 13 injured, dozens are still missing in 249 apartments in three 12-storey interconnected blocs that all collapsed.
Earthquake survivor Cemile İncili, who was rescued from the rubble of the Rönesans Residence two days after the earthquakes, told reporters before the hearing on Thursday that her sister and nephew are still missing.
İncili said the three had gathered in the same room when the building began to shake and that the building collapsed before they could find a safer place to hide.
The woman, who had to undergo several operations because she was severely injured, said she does not think a thorough and detailed examination was conducted in the rubble of the collapsed buildings to find the missing people.
She said there are suspicions about the transfer of injured residents to other cities, where they either died or were buried in cemeteries of people without a family.
İncili said the graves of the people considered to be without family should be opened and the bodies exhumed, allowing for DNA tests so they can be identified.
The collapse of the Rönesans Residence has become a symbol of the rot in Turkey’s construction business.
The residence’s contractor, Mehmet Yaşar Coşkun, also the owner of Antis Yapı, was detained at İstanbul Airport before he was about to board a flight to Montenegro several days after the earthquake and was arrested.
In his testimony to prosecutors, Coşkun said he does not know why the buildings collapsed, claiming that they were constructed in line with the country’s building codes and underwent the necessary inspections.
Civil engineers and earthquake specialists told the Financial Times, which released an exclusive report about the collapse of Rönesans Residence in late February 2023, said it was too soon to tell exactly why the Rönesans fell over. But they agreed that such modern blocs should not have collapsed as a result of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, nor the second 7.5 magnitude shock that followed several hours later.
More than 13,800 buildings collapsed in Hatay, while at least 22,000 people were killed there in the earthquakes. The Antakya, Defne and Samandağ districts were nearly wiped off the map.
Hatay’s population was around 1.6 million before the earthquakes. There is no information about the city’s current population, but some 187,000 people live in more than 200 container cities established in the city after the tragedy.