Turkey detains 54 people suspected of building collapse after earthquake

Turkish judiciary decided to join preventive prison from 54 people as part of an investigation aimed at establishing responsibility for the collapse building earthquakes that devastated southeastern Turkey on February 6, the local press reported this Friday.

Minister of Justice of Turkey Bekir Bozdagindicated that a total of 245 suspects were under investigation, of which 54 were in custody, 47 were released under judicial supervision and 27 were in pre-trial detention.

Bozdag promised that Justice would take full action against those who might be responsible for the collapses.

Minister of Urban Development, Murat Kurumannounced today that after surveying 684,000 buildings in the affected areas, 84,000 were either destroyed or severely damaged and must be urgently demolished.

Construction businessmen top arrest lists

From a list published by a digital newspaper Dicken Most of those detained appear to be construction businessmen and contractors, but there are also architects, engineers, technical delegates and foremen of the affected works.

The detainees also include the owners and managers of the collapsed buildings, who are under investigation for allegedly allowing further modifications to the structure.

Already during the 2011 Van earthquake and the 2020 Izmir earthquake, several collapses were associated with the fact that the owners of shops or supermarkets located in the basement of a residential building removed load-bearing walls to expand the available space.

Also now, numerous social media users are revealing that many of the buildings that collapsed in earthquake they housed supermarkets or banks on the ground floor, where load-bearing walls were allegedly demolished.

But the opposition points out that the government itself contributed to this phenomenon, launching a massive campaign in 2018 to legalize buildings built illegally or without specific permits under the slogan of “building peace.”

The official brochure of the Ministry of Urban Development explains that this measure was intended to end the problems of the residents of the houses, which had often been occupied for many years, but because they were illegal, could not access water or electricity or take mortgage.

The law, passed weeks before the June 2018 general election, affected about 7 million buildings, 5 million of which are residential, across Turkey.

The Turkish press reports that in the months before the next election, scheduled for May or June, a new law of similar content is being discussed in parliament.

(As reported by EFE)