‘Buildings in the north more resilient’ than those in Turkey

Buildings in the north have more resilient construction than those in Turkey, ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel said on Monday, despite criticism over the weekend that many school buildings were old and not seismic resistant.

Speaking after returning from Istanbul, Ustel said that the evaluation of schools had begun.

However, he said that in meetings that the ‘government’ had with academics specialising in geology and earthquakes, authorities were told that the buildings in Cyprus were more resilient.

Ustel had gone with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar to Turkey to express personal condolences for the earthquake to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

According to Ustel, Erdogan accepted their condolences and thanked the Turkish Cypriot team for helping in earthquake response.

Regarding the earthquake that hit at the beginning of the month, a study that was recently completed in the north showed that Famagusta and Kyrenia had been affected by a small-scale tsunami following the devastating earthquake at the beginning of February in southern Turkey and northern Syria.

According to the newspaper Havadis, the findings were found in the report by the Middle East Technical University, Bosporus University, and the University of Southern California.

The report showed that the tsunami affected the two areas of Cyprus, and the area of Antakya and Mersin in Turkey.

Waves were recorded almost an hour after the earthquake hit, the study showed.

A few days ago, amidst parents’ concerns over school infrastructure in the north, students at the Namik Kemal high school decided to abstain until a seismic resistance report was prepared.

The high school in the non-government-controlled area of Famagusta has been deemed dangerous, parents said, and together with their children decided to abstain from classes until the school building is repaired and the seismic resistance report is prepared, Diyalogue reported.

Meanwhile, commenting on the collapse of a hotel in Adiyaman during the earthquake that killed 35 Turkish Cypriots, the owners of the Isias hotel claimed that the building was earthquake resistant.

Ahmet Bozkurt, who has been remanded for the collapse of the hotel, said that the building fell due to the poorly constructed adjacent parking garage.

However, witnesses at the scene during the earthquake claimed that the hotel had collapsed like a house of cards.

According to the preliminary report by Eastern Mediterranean University in the north, the quality of the concrete was apparently low.