Turkish opposition leader in north to meet earthquake victims’ families

Turkish main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu is visiting the north on Thursday to meet the Turkish Cypriot families, who lost loved ones in the earthquakes last month.

Kilicdaroglu, who is President Tayyip Erdogan’s main opponent in upcoming elections in Turkey, arrived in the morning with his wife Selvi for a visit with the families of the 35-member school group that died, when their hotel in Adiyaman collapsed from the earthquake.

In a post on twitter, Kilicdaroglu said: “The children of the our small ‘child’ country were killed in the hotel in Adiyaman. We just came to the TRNC with Ms Selvi to meet with the families. The outcry of our ‘child’ country will not go unheard.”

He added that the visits would be one of the most difficult days he and his wife have experienced.

The school group from Famagusta were in Adiyaman for a volleyball tournament, and on the night of the first earthquake on February 6, the hotel they were staying at collapsed, killing 35 people, mostly children, of the 39-member group.

Since then, the hotel owners have been arrested and a court case has been opened in Turkey, following studies that showed the building was unsafe, which led to its collapse.