ISTANBUL - 13 legal organizations in Istanbul drew attention to the violations before and after the earthquake and filed a criminal complaint against all relevant authorities and individuals, especially President Erdoğan of AKP.

13 law organizations, including the Lawyers' Association for Freedom (ÖHD) and the Contemporary Lawyers Association (ÇHD) Istanbul Branch, came together in front of the Istanbul Courthouse to file a criminal complaint against the authorities responsible for what happened in the earthquake. Esra Bilen, the co-chairperson of the ÖHD Istanbul Branch, who spoke first at the action where the banner "it is not an earthquake but a massacre" was carried, drew attention to the data on the destruction, death and wounds that emerged after the earthquake.

Stating that the official authorities do not share real information and that there are still thousands of people under the rubble, Bilen said: "Those who lost their lives were far beyond the announced data. An earthquake is a natural disaster, but what turned it into a disaster and a great tragedy is negligence and measures that were not taken on time.”

EARTHQUAKE WAS A MASSACRE, NOT NATURAL DISASTER

Knowing that the region is a "first degree risky area" in terms of earthquakes, however, most of the buildings were built in areas close to fault lines, adding that at least 5 major destructive earthquakes occurred in this region in 60 years. Pointing out that the necessary precautions were not taken, Bilen said: “These situations paved the way for earthquakes, which are natural events, to turn into disasters and cause great destruction. Although the earthquake is considered a natural disaster, it turned into a massacre rather than a natural disaster due to negligence.

'MURDER'

Stating that another important reason for the increase in the loss of life is the removal of the debris before the people under the collapse are removed, Bilen said: “As far as it was reflected in the media, experts from abroad, some of the search and rescue teams, condemned the early start of the debris removal activities by ending the rescue activities and left the earthquake zones long before they planned. Every loss of life due to this situation is 'willfully committed murder'. In short, although the earthquake was a natural disaster, it turned into a massacre because of the negligence and failure of those responsible before and after the earthquake."

CRIMINAL COMPLAINT

The lawyers said that they came together for making a criminal complaint about all the ministers, especially the AKP President Tayyip Erdoğan, and the governors, mayors, trustees, contractors of the cities where the earthquake occurred, about the engineers, architects and building inspection companies that make and control the projects of the destroyed buildings for these reasons “Deliberate and probable intentional killing”, “Deliberate and probable intentional injury”, “Probable intentional and conscious negligence killing by negligent behavior”, “Injuring with negligence with possible intention, deliberate negligence”, “Misuse of duty, neglect of duty”.