Turkey orders the arrest of buildings collapsed in the earthquake

The government pledges to conduct a thorough investigation of those responsible. Nearly 25,000 buildings collapsed or were severely damaged. The opposition accused the government of not implementing regulations. Erdogan says the opposition is lying to the government. One developer was arrested as he prepared to fly from Turkey.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey vowed on Sunday to thoroughly investigate anyone suspected of responsibility for building collapses in the devastating earthquakes that rocked the country nearly a week ago, and has already ordered the detention of 113 suspects.

Overnight, 131 suspects have been identified so far as responsible for the collapse of some of the thousands of buildings flattened in the 10 quake-affected provinces early last Monday, Vice President Fuat Oktay said.

“Arrest warrants have been issued for 113 of them,” Oktay told reporters at a briefing at the Disaster Management Coordination Center in Ankara.

“We will follow this matter closely until the necessary judicial procedures are completed, especially for buildings that suffered severe damage and buildings that caused deaths and injuries,” he added.

He said the Ministry of Justice has set up earthquake crime investigation offices in the quake zone provinces to investigate deaths and injuries.

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Environment Minister Murat Kurum said 24,921 buildings across the region had collapsed or been severely damaged in the quake, based on assessments of more than 170,000 buildings.

Rescuers are still searching for survivors in the rubble of the quake, six days after the disaster struck parts of Syria and Turkey. The death toll has passed 28,000 and is expected to rise further.

Opposition parties have accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government of not enforcing building regulations, and of mis-spending special taxes levied after the last major earthquake in 1999 in order to make buildings more earthquake-resistant.

[1/7] Rescue workers carry survivor Meziane Ofkeli following a deadly earthquake in Hatay, Turkey on February 12, 2023. REUTERS/Kemal Aslan

Erdogan said that the opposition is content with lying and spreading slander to discredit the government and hinder investment instead of confronting corruption in municipalities run by the opposition.

In the ten years to 2022, Turkey has fallen 47 places in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index to 101, down from 54 out of 174 countries in 2012.

The state-owned Anadolu news agency reported that prosecutors in Adana ordered the detention of 62 people in an investigation into the collapsed buildings, while prosecutors sought the detention of 33 people in Diyarbakir for the same reason.

It added that eight people were arrested in Sanliurfa and four in Osmaniye in connection with destroyed buildings believed to have defects such as removed columns.

Police detained the developer of a collapsed apartment complex in Antakya at Istanbul Airport as he was preparing to board a plane to Montenegro on Friday evening, and he was officially arrested on Saturday, according to Anadolu Agency.

The 12-storey upscale apartment complex was completed a decade ago and contains 249 apartments. There was no information about casualties in that building.

And Anatolia stated that the arrested man told the Public Prosecution that he did not know the reason for the collapse of the complex and that his desire to go to Montenegro had nothing to do with that.

“We have implemented all the measures stipulated in the legislation,” Anadolu quoted him as saying in his statement. All licenses obtained.

Additional reporting by Dominic Evans, writing by Darren Butler; Editing by Ece Toksabay and Raisa Kasulowski

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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