A Turkish court has arrested two defendants in Ankara after 720 days at large in connection with the collapse of an apartment building that killed 35 people during earthquakes in February 2023 that devastated parts of Turkey, BBC’s Turkish service reported Thursday.
The magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 earthquakes struck 11 provinces in southern and southeastern Turkey on February 6, 2023, killing 53,725 people, injuring more than 107,000 and leaving millions homeless when thousands of buildings collapsed.
According to a statement by the Kahramanmaraş Governor’s Office, pastry shop owners Sami Kervancıoğlu and Mustafa Pekel, each facing up to 876 years in prison for their alleged role in the collapse of the Ezgi apartment building in the city, were captured in a 3 a.m. raid at a residence in Ankara’s Etimesgut district.
Uğur Biricik, the lawyer for Nurgül Göksu, who lost her son, daughter-in-law and baby granddaughter in the Ezgi collapse and has been seeking justice for them, confirmed to BBC Turkish that the two defendants were formally arrested by a court after their detention.
At the most recent hearing on May 13, the trial continued at the Kahramanmaraş 4th High Criminal Court for 12 defendants, including Kervancıoğlu and Pekel, who were at large at the time, as well as one in pretrial detention, two released pending trial and seven public officials. The next hearing is scheduled for September 30.
The two suspects, who operated the Kervan Pastry Shop on the building’s ground floor, are accused of carrying out unauthorized renovations that severely damaged the structure’s load-bearing elements. The alterations, including the cutting of columns and shear walls — vertical structural elements designed to resist lateral forces — are cited as a primary factor in the building’s collapse during the first of the two powerful earthquakes.
Both men face charges of killing with probable intent and injury with probable intent, with prosecutors seeking prison sentences of 876 years for each.
Fugitives found in luxury villa linked to relative of former AKP lawmaker
According to the Birgün daily, Kervancıoğlu and Pekel were apprehended in a villa in Ankara’s Etimesgut district. The property, described as a luxury residence on a 7,000-square-meter estate, belongs to Cengiz Gökay, the son-in-law of Hüseyin Samani, a former lawmaker from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Gökay, who has appeared in public photos with senior AKP figures including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, told Birgün he was unaware the fugitives were staying there, claiming the property had been rented by their daughters.
“If the police call me to testify, I will go and give my statement,” he said.
Thousands of buildings collapsed during the 2023 earthquakes due to poor construction and failure to enforce building codes, especially in Turkey’s earthquake-prone regions. As of February, the Justice Ministry said prosecutors had launched more than 2,000 investigations and filed 1,397 indictments. Critics say the pursuit of justice has been limited, with many defendants either acquitted or given reduced sentences for “good conduct,” raising concerns about accountability in Turkey’s deadliest disaster in modern times.
Turkey, which sits on major fault lines, has a poor record of prosecuting those responsible for deaths in earthquakes. After a magnitude 7.4 quake struck the western city of İzmit in 1999, killing more than 17,000 people, prosecutors filed 2,100 indictments against contractors and related parties. But 1,800 trials could not proceed due to legal loopholes, and only 110 of the remaining 300 ended in convictions — most resulting in short prison sentences. Some trials were dropped entirely after the statute of limitations expired in 2007.
There is little hope, critics say, that Turkey’s justice system will this time deliver fair trials for those responsible for collapsed buildings or meet the victims’ families’ demands for justice.