Turkish earthquakes: police arrest contractors

The collapse of so many recently-completed apartment buildings in the earthquake zones has raised questions over the extent to which poorly-enforced building regulations contributed to the death toll.

Last week, a professor of earthquake science at the University of Melbourne said that many of the collapsed buildings appear to have been built from concrete without adequate seismic reinforcement.

Turkey updated its building regulations following major earthquakes in 1999 and 2011. The building code for earthquake resilience were last revised in 2018.

Attention has now turned to building contractors who are suspected of having flouted the latest building codes.

On Monday 13^th February the state-run Anadolu news agency reported that police in Turkish northern Cyprus arrested company boss Hasan Alpargun over the collapse of several buildings erected by his company in the southern province of Adana.

Alpargun is being held on suspicion of reckless manslaughter and other charges, reported Anadolu.

Another contractor, Ibrahim Mustafa Uncuoğlu, was arrested in Istanbul after examination of the wreckage of an apartment block built by his company in the Gaziantep province.

Istanbul police also arrested Mehmet Ertan Akay, whose company also built one of the buildings that collapsed in Gaziantep. He has been charged with reckless manslaughter and building code violations, reported Anadolu.

Mehmet Yasar Coşkun, whose company built a large residential building in Turkey’s Hatay province, was also taken into custody on Saturday after being arrested at Istanbul Airport while trying to board a flight to Montenegro.

According to Anadolu, Coskun claimed that did not know why the building was destroyed and said that his flight to Montenegro had nothing to do with the collapsed building.

Turkey’s justice minister Bekir Bozdağ said on Wednesday, 8^th February, two days after the earthquakes, that the priority was to save people who are still trapped under the rubble. But he added: "After that, the judicial process will follow. All those who had negligence and fault will be held accountable."

According to the Reuters news agency, by Monday 13^th February the death toll in Turkey had risen to 31,643 and more than 5,714 are believed to have perished in Syria.

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