Turkey arrests building contractors in wake of earthquake

Approximately 130 people were arrested or are the target of arrest warrants issued by Turkish officials for their involvement in alleged faulty and illegal construction methods as rescue teams work to locate survivors in the wreckage of thousands of buildings downed by an earthquake nearly a week ago.

As the country reels from the earthquake that left over 28,000 dead in Turkey and Syria, Turkish officials have turned to identifying those who were allegedly responsible for the unpreparedness of infrastructure in the wake of the disaster. Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Saturday that arrest warrants had been issued for 131 people who are suspected to be connected to the collapse of the buildings.

Turkish officials have vowed to punish those responsible for the building collapses, which they say only multiplied the human damage caused by the earthquake. The arrest warrants come after Turkish officials established “Earthquake Crimes Investigation Offices.”

“Detention orders have been issued for 113 of them,” Oktay told reporters in a briefing at the disaster management coordination center in Ankara, according to Reuters.

“We will follow this up meticulously until the necessary judicial process is concluded, especially for buildings that suffered heavy damage and buildings that caused deaths and injuries,” he added.

Officials said that nearly 25,000 buildings have collapsed or were heavily damaged from the earthquake.

The public finger-pointing at contractors and construction practices also comes as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has faced scrutiny for his response to the quake and was dealing with a difficult economic outlook before the disaster. His government is facing parliamentary and presidential elections in May.

Rescuers are continuing to work in hopes of finding survivors in the ruins of the quake, with the death toll expected to go higher than the 28,000 people who reportedly lost their lives.