More than 18 months after massive earthquakes flattened the southern Turkish city of Antakya, the victims’ families have little faith justice will be served but say they will fight until their very last breath.
With a huge area hit by the February 2023 quakes that killed 55,000 people, the luxury Rönesans Residence apartment bloc quickly became a high-profile symbol of the construction malpractice at the heart of the tragedy.
Sold as “a corner of paradise,” the complex’s abrupt collapse like a house of cards prompted a criminal case against eight defendants that had its third hearing on Thursday.
Its list of celebrity residents included former Ghana international footballer Christian Atsu, who was one of hundreds who died under the rubble of the structure built in 2013.
Days after the quakes, police arrested the building’s contractor at Istanbul airport as he appeared to be fleeing to Montenegro.
Hafize Açıkgöz, 43, who lost her husband and three children at the Rönesans complex, said she had “zero hope” that those responsible would be sufficiently punished.
“I don’t have any faith in justice,” she told AFP, saying she thought their apartment bloc, which towered over those around it, was the safest in the area.
“We looked down on the buildings nearby. They stood tall, and ours collapsed. My family is under the ground, and I am like the living dead,” she said, her eyes full of tears.
Lawyer Emine Çandarlı, who lives in the western city of Izmir, also lost family in the Rönesans, finding the bodies of her sister, her brother-in-law and their two kids embracing each other under the ruins 11 days after the quakes.
“It’s not the quakes that killed my sister and her family but the contractors who sold the flats as safe and sound,” she told AFP by phone.
“That building [collapsing] is the contractors’ fault.”
Almost all the rubble from the Rönesans complex was cleared away in the weeks after the quakes.
AFP journalists visiting the area on Thursday found the site completely flattened, with heavy machinery operating there.
‘My birthday gift’
Turkish prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of 22 years, six months for each of the eight suspects, including contractor Mehmet Yasar Coskun, who has pleaded not guilty.
“What would happen if you loaded 30 tons into a 10-ton capacity truck?” he asked the judge on Thursday, via video link.
“This is what exactly happened to our building,” he said, pointing to the intensity and duration of the quakes.
The eight suspects are charged with “causing death through conscious negligence.” Four of them are in pretrial detention, while one is still at large.
But even if the suspects receive the maximum sentence, the families say it will never be enough.
“I will never forgive those responsible,” said Kismet Kosar, 41, who lost her two sisters, their husbands and two nephews at the Rönesans.
“I will follow this case until my dying breath … 22 years for the suspects is not enough,” she told AFP. “We are dying every day.”
The contractors and project developers insist all the permits were correctly issued after studies by the municipality and the oversight company.
But to the dismay of the families, no municipal official has been held to account in the case since that would require permission from the interior ministry.
“I have tremendous pain that will never be eased,” said Çandarlı, whose sister moved to the Rönesans from İzmir after getting married.
“My sister was my other half. We were born on the same day even though I was four years older,” she said.
“She was my birthday gift.”
© Agence France-Presse