Turkish authorities have detained or issued arrest warrants for 130 people allegedly involved in constructing buildings that toppled down and crushed their occupants after two earthquakes devastated southeastern Türkiye nearly a week ago.
Rescuers on Sunday were still pulling a lucky few from the rubble, as the death toll from last Monday’s quakes rose to 24,600 – with another 80,000-plus injured – as of morning and was sure to increase as bodies kept emerging.
The government has vowed to investigate thoroughly anyone suspected of responsibility for the collapse of buildings.
Vice President Fuat Oktay said overnight that 131 suspects had so far been identified as responsible for the collapse of some of more than 6,400 buildings flattened in the 10 provinces affected by the tremors, which also severely hit northern Syria.
“Detention orders have been issued for 113 of them,” Oktay told reporters in a briefing at Ankara’s disaster management coordination center. “We will follow this up meticulously until the necessary judicial process is concluded, especially for buildings that suffered heavy damage and that caused deaths and injuries.”
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has vowed to punish anyone responsible, and prosecutors have begun gathering building samples for evidence on construction materials.
The quakes were powerful, but victims, experts and people across Türkiye blame bad construction for multiplying the devastation.
Oktay said the Justice Ministry had established earthquake crimes investigation bureaus in the quake zone provinces to investigate deaths and injuries.
The Justice Ministry on Saturday announced the planned establishment of “Earthquake Crimes Investigation” bureaus. The bureaus would aim to identify contractors and others responsible for building works, gather evidence, instruct experts, including architects, geologists and engineers, and check building and occupancy permits.
Environment Minister Murat Kurum said that 24,921 buildings across the region had collapsed or were heavily damaged in the quake, based on assessments of more than 170,000 buildings.
Authorities at Istanbul Airport on Sunday detained two contractors held responsible for the destruction of several buildings in Adıyaman, the Demirören News Agency (DHA) and other media reported. The pair were reportedly on their way to Georgia.
Two more people were arrested in the province of Gaziantep suspected of having cut down columns to make extra room in a building that collapsed, Anadolu Agency (AA) said.
State prosecutors in Adana ordered the detention of 62 people in an investigation into collapsed buildings. In comparison, prosecutors sought to arrest 33 people in Diyarbakır for the same reason, the agency said.
It said eight people had been detained in Şanlıurfa and four in Osmaniye in connection with destroyed buildings believed to have faults, such as columns being removed.
Police detained the developer of one residential complex which collapsed in the historic city of Antakya at Istanbul Airport as he prepared to board a plane for Montenegro on Friday evening. He was formally arrested on Saturday.
The upmarket 12-story residential complex in Hatay province was completed a decade ago and contained 249 apartments. There was no information on the casualties in that building.
The arrested man told prosecutors he did not know why the complex collapsed and that his desire to go to Montenegro was unrelated, AA reported.
“We fulfilled all procedures set out in legislation,” he was quoted by AA as saying in his statement. “All licenses were obtained.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the worst-affected area was 500 kilometers (310 miles) in diameter and is home to 13.5 million people in Türkiye and that more than 1 million were accommodated in temporary shelters.
During a tour of quake-damaged cities Saturday, Erdoğan said a disaster of this scope was rare and again referred to it as the “disaster of the century.”
He said hundreds of thousands of buildings were uninhabitable across southern Türkiye and that authorities would soon start rebuilding.
“We’ve planned to rebuild hundreds of thousands of buildings,” he said. “We will start taking concrete steps within a few weeks.”
He added that the government aims to build housing within one year for those left without a home in the 10 provinces affected.
