Trial begins over hotel collapse that killed 35 Turkish Cypriots (updated)

The trial of 11 suspects held responsible for deaths of 24 Turkish Cypriot children and 11 of their teachers and coaches when a hotel they were staying in collapsed began on Wednesday.

The Isias hotel in the Turkish city of Adiyaman collapsed on February 6 last year during the earthquakes which hit the region.

The Turkish Cypriots made up the Famagusta Turk Maarif Koleji (TMK) school volleyball team and were in Adiyaman for a tournament. Following their deaths, the team received the nickname “champion angels”.

A total of 11 people stand accused of “causing death by conscious negligence” at Adiyaman’s third High criminal court, and, if found guilty, could face a maximum of 22 and a half years in prison.

The trial began at 8am Cyprus time, with the 11 defendants identified via video link to the courtroom.

The hearing began with prosecuting lawyer Cetin Arslan demanding the witnesses be present in court and said there were “problems” with questioning defendants via a video conference.

The first statement was then made by Ahmet Bozkurt, the owner of the Isias hotel and one of the 11 defendants.

He said he did not accept the allegations that an extra floor had been built on top of the hotel, as had been written in the report on the hotel’s structure issued by the Karadeniz Technical University, and said he had a certificate proving there were no “excess floors” in the building.

He also denied the KTU’s statement that supporting columns at the hotel had been cut, accusing the university’s researchers of “immediately trying to remove the hotel’s rubble and eliminate the evidence.

“I do not accept any of the slander thrown at me. These slanders are spread through hearsay, with no information. I am being blamed for the hotel to which I gave so much care.

“I am a well-known person in this region, these are false statements. These allegations are being made because I am a well-known person in Adiyaman … My building collapsed due to the high intensity of the earthquake,” he said.

He said he had been told by “Japanese scientists” that the earthquakes had a magnitude of 10, which would have made them the strongest recorded earthquakes in the history of the planet if true.

He added that following the earthquake, he had gone with his son to the ruins of the hotel and heard noises. He said that this was evidence that those who had been killed at the hotel had not died as a result of the building collapsing in the earthquakes, but from freezing to death.

Before the trial began, the large Cypriot contingent which had travelled to Adiyaman to watch the trial gathered outside the courthouse.

Rusen Karakaya, whose daughter Selin was among those killed, and who is now the chairwoman of the Keeping the Champion Angels Alive Association, spoke outside the courthouse.

“We are together today to seek justice in this place which was destroyed by the February 6 earthquake, and which became thousands of people’s grave,” she said.

She added: “Our search for justice is not only so the defendants can be punished, but also for justice for those who lost loved ones, whose lives were torn from them, and whose homes were destroyed.

“Every single person who created the Isias hotel is guilty. All of them should be tried for murder. On the day the law shows its superiority over these dishonourable, irresponsible, murderous mentalities, justice will be done in Turkey and future generations will live in greater safety,” she said.

The north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel, who travelled to Adiyaman on Tuesday evening, said outside court that nearly 100 Turkish Cypriots travelled to the city to witness the trial.

“I am here as prime minister. Our ministers, our leader of the opposition, our MPs, our bar association, and our prime ministerial team is also here. Representatives of the families of the children who died are here. This team is a concrete indicator of what this means to our country.”

University reports into the Isias hotel’s structure showed that supporting columns at the hotel had been cut, and that sand and gravel from a river had been used in its construction.

In addition, it was reported that that an entire extra floor had been illegally built on top of the already compromised structure in 2016. The floor was subsequently legalised during a “zoning amnesty” in 2018.