DENIALS
Six months passed before Türkiye arrested the first suspect in the wake of another disastrous quake in 1999.
More than 17,000 people died in the country’s northwestern regions near Istanbul at the time.
Officials eventually opened 2,100 investigations against developers of collapsed buildings. They did not lead to much.
A general amnesty in December 2000 saw 1,800 of those cases dropped.
The courts found fault in only 110 cases. Most of those found guilty ended up benefiting from a statute of limitation that entered into force in 2007.
The Ronesans project’s developer has also pleaded innocence.
“I do not know why the building collapse,” Mehmet Yasar Coskun said.
“All the permits were issued after studies by the municipality and the oversight company.”
A local mayor who issued the building permit in 2021 denied responsibility as well.
“A private company conducted the control procedure,” Seyfettin Yeral told the T24 news site. “We do not have employees who can do such work.”
CALIFORNIA STANDARDS
Türkiye has adopted a series of buildings standards and regulations modelled on those of California.
But these have been regularly revised – the last time in 2018.
Engineers and architects interviewed by AFP said most of Türkiye’s builders manage to work their way around existing codes.
“On paper, the standards are respected, with contracts awarded to private companies responsible for controlling them,” Istanbul architect Aykut Koksal said.
But Koksal stressed that developers often strike private deals with companies in charge of conducting the inspections.
He said this dilutes enforcement and gives developer much leeway to cut costs.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
