The Council of State, Turkey’s highest administrative court, has overturned a decision by the culture and tourism minister that shielded ministry officials from prosecution over a hotel fire that killed 78 people at a ski resort in January, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The Grand Kartal Hotel, a 12-story ski resort in Bolu province’s Kartalkaya mountain area, caught fire shortly after midnight on January 21, killing 78 people, including 36 children, and injuring 133. Entire families perished in the blaze, which has become a symbol of what critics call Turkey’s systemic failures in building safety and inspections and political accountability.
The Council of State said nine officials from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism can now stand trial in connection with the fire.
The court’s decision came after lawyer Onur Fırat Kaynun filed an appeal with the Council of State’s First Chamber earlier this month on behalf of victims’ families. Under Turkey’s Law No. 4483, prosecutors cannot investigate civil servants without “investigation permission” from their ministry. Refusals can be challenged before the Council of State.
A panel of experts had previously held the ministry “primarily responsible” for the tragedy, but Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy had refused in April to allow an investigation into his staff, citing the law that requires ministerial approval for the prosecution of public servants.
The court upheld Ersoy’s refusal for three ministry officials, including a deputy minister and two trainee inspectors, finding that their actions did not merit prosecution. But it lifted protections for nine others, among them senior officials in the ministry’s investment and operations department and inspectors responsible for overseeing safety at the hotel. The ruling, delivered September 25, was sent to the Bolu Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office to proceed with charges.
The decision was not unanimous. The presiding judge and another member of the court argued in dissenting opinions that some inspectors had acted in line with internal regulations and should not face trial.
The court’s decision comes amid the ongoing criminal case in Bolu, where 32 defendants — including hotel owner Halit Ergül and his family members, managers, municipal officials and fire department staff — are standing trial, 19 of whom are in pretrial detention. The main case, which does not yet include ministry personnel, has been adjourned until October 27.
The Grand Kartal Hotel blaze has attracted widespread criticism of state oversight of tourism facilities. Families of the victims say negligence and regulatory failures contributed to the scale of the disaster.