Turkish earthquake trial for school volleyball team’s fatal hotel collapse

The trial for the earthquake in Turkey has started. It is looking at the collapse of a hotel where 72 people died.

The hotel in the southeast city of Adiyaman had a school volleyball team from Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus and some tourist guides when the earthquake happened last year.

Eleven people have been accused of not following the construction rules.

Over 50,000 people died in the earthquake that happened on February 6 in Turkey and Syria.

About 160,000 buildings fell down or were very broken, making 1. 5 million people have no home anymore.

The Turkish government said a few weeks later that they were checking many people and had arrested nearly 200 people, including builders and property owners.

39 people from Famagusta Turkish Education College, including boys, girls, teachers, and parents, were in Adiyaman for a volleyball tournament when the earthquake happened.

They chose the seven-story Isias Grand hotel and had 40 tourist guides there for training.

39 people from Famagusta, including a group of girls and a group of boys from Famagusta Turkish Education College.

The Isias was a famous hotel in Adiyaman, but it fell down suddenly.

Four parents were the only people left from the volleyball team. They were able to get out of the broken buildings, but 35 people, including all the kids, died.

Rescue teams from Famagusta came to get the bodies, and people who survived said Turkish officials didn’t do anything to help.

Family members of the people who died went to Adiyaman for the beginning of the trial on Wednesday. They want the 11 people on trial to receive strict punishments, and they also want Turkish officials who approved the hotel to be charged.

The hotel has been open since 2001. Experts found that the columns holding up the hotel were made from a mix of gravel, sand, and other materials from the nearby river.

In 2016, the hotel added more floors without the proper permission, according to the charge.

“They didn’t make a hotel, they made a place to bury a lot of people. ” Pervin Aksoy Ipekcioglu, a mother, said she cannot accept what happened to her 14-year-old daughter Serin.

Parents of the high school sports team are outside the court in Adiyaman, Turkey on 3 January 2023.


The government checked the hotel many times and said it’s really good with four stars. Then it fell down and 72 people died. She said to BBC Turkish that the person who did this should be punished.

The big number of buildings that fell down in the earthquake on 6 February made a lot of people angry at the Turkish government. They were blamed for letting too many buildings be built and not making sure they followed the rules for construction. The rules had been made stricter after other disasters, but they were still not being followed.

“Safiye Cevik blames the person in charge of Isias Hotel for her daughter Nehir’s death. ”

“She said you should be punished for intentionally killing someone, and you will get what you deserve. ”

If found guilty, the 11 people could be sentenced to spend between two years and eight months to more than 22 years in prison.