Supporting columns ‘cut’ in earthquake hotel where Turkish Cypriot children died

Supporting columns had been “cut” at the Isias hotel in Adiyaman, Turkey, which collapsed during February’s earthquakes in the area and killed 24 Turkish Cypriot children, according to a report by the Istanbul Technical University (ITU).

The contents of the report were discussed at Thursday’s meeting of the north’s legal and political affairs ‘parliamentary’ committee, which was also attended by representatives of the Keeping the Champion Angels Alive association, which is made up of parents of Turkish Cypriot children killed in the earthquake.

Following the meeting, committee chairman Oguzhan Hasipoglu said the committee has made previous visits to Turkey, and that the legal process regarding the deaths is ongoing.

He added that reports on the Isias hotel building had been compiled by both ITU and the Karadeniz Technical University (KTU), and that the KTU report would be added to the case file “within ten days”.

Regarding the ITU report, he said he was informed of a “break in the columns” in three different analysed samples.

He said “as of yesterday, the report of ITU’s chemistry and metallurgy faculty on whether the columns were cut or not has entered the file of the Adiyaman prosecutor’s office. According to this report, it was determined that the columns were cut”.

“We always said a murder was committed at the Isias hotel. We will also review the report as a committee. We will follow this case until the end”, he added.

Rusen Karakaya, who chairs the Keeping the Champion Angels Alive association and whose 14-year-old daughter Selin was killed in the Isias hotel, said the “recent developments have made it clear that our case needs to be followed even more closely”.

“We will never give up on this case”, she said.