The trial of Cypriot children killed in the earthquake resumes

The trial of the eleven people responsible for the collapse of the Isaias Hotel in the city of Adiyaman in southeastern Turkey, which resulted in the deaths of 24 Cypriot children, 11 Cypriot adults, and 37 others during the earthquakes that struck the region in February last year, began today. Tuesday has been postponed to December 3.

Tuesday's hearing at the 3rd Supreme Criminal Court in Adiyaman saw tensions rise, with the final part of today's session seeing hotel owner Ahmet Bozkurt taking direct questions from Cypriot lawyer Pervin Aksoy Ipekcioglu, whose daughter Seren was among those killed when the hotel collapsed.

The back-and-forth discussion saw questions regarding the hotel's construction and the composition of materials used, with Ipekcioglu pointing to Istanbul Technical University's finding that the building suffered from “irregularity of soft floors.”

This means that the upper floors were built more solidly than the lower floors, so when the earthquake occurred and the lower floors swayed, the upper floors collapsed more easily than they necessarily should.

Bozkurt maintained his innocence throughout, saying that he saw the ruins of the hotel before he was arrested and that “90 percent of Adıyaman was destroyed” by the earthquake.

“If the whole place was still standing and only Isaias had been destroyed, I would have accepted all the accusations,” he said.

He will remain in detention until December 3, having been detained since his arrest in February 2023.

This fact was raised by his lawyer, who requested the release of him and his son Mehmet Fatih Bozkurt, saying: “They have been detained for 21 months and it is clear that this has turned into a punishment and not a precautionary measure. “

Ahmed Bozkurt had said during the morning session: “I do not accept these accusations, but rather I reject them.” We are not guilty. It's a completely natural disaster. I demand my release. “I am a victim, I lost my health because of this.”

At the end of the morning session, the head of the Turkish Bar Association of Cyprus, Hasan Esendagli, accused the defense lawyer of “behaving provocatively” in court towards the families of the dead.

“The actions of the defendants’ lawyers are not consistent with the legal profession,” Essandajli told Kipress newspaper.

“The defendants’ lawyers also defend their clients under great pressure. From their point of view, they are just doing their job, but their behavior has now gone beyond the right of defence. It has been aggressive and provocative.”

More than 100 people from Cyprus, including family members of the dead, politicians, a delegation from the Turkish Cypriot Bar Association and a number of journalists, traveled to Adiyaman to attend the hearing.

Rosine Karakaya, whose daughter Selin was among those killed, is now president of Keeping the Champion Angels Alive – the nickname given to the Cypriot children who traveled to Adiyaman as representatives of the Famagusta Turk Marev College volleyball team. The team – gave a speech outside the court.

“Our children are not with us because of Isaias, that pile of sand they dared to call a hotel, which was built by greed and neglect. We should not visit our loved ones at their graves! We should have hugged and embraced them, but this right was stolen from us, and this case will not be closed until whoever did this is held accountable.”

North Korean Prime Minister Unal Ostell described the collapse of the Isaias Hotel as the “disaster of the century.”

“I am here in Adiyaman not as a prime minister but as a father, a Turkish Cypriot and a human being. We have full confidence in the justice system of the Republic of Turkey. We expect the charges to be upgraded to include intent.”

The hearing was scheduled for Tuesday, when it was hoped that the fourth report on the hotel collapse, which the court ordered in April to be conducted by Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, would be ready.

The fourth report was commissioned after Ankara's Gazi University prepared a controversial report on the hotel's construction. The report was much less harsh than the first two reports, written by Karadeniz Technical University in Trabzon and Istanbul Technical University.

The first two explained how sand and gravel from a local river were used in building the hotel, and how the hotel's supporting columns were cut, among many other deficiencies, but the Gazi University report stated that the reported illegal flooring and illegal elevator shaft did not affect the hotel's collapse. .

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