First day of Kartalkaya hearing concludes: 'I was arrested without saying goodbye to my daughter'

The first day of the trial regarding the Grand Kartal Hotel fire in Bolu, which resulted in the deaths of 78 people, has concluded. The case involves 32 defendants, 19 of whom are in custody, including the hotel owner and municipal officials.

The final defendant to provide a defense, Yeliz Erdoğan, the Provincial Special Administration Licensing Manager, stated, "The reason I am here is that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has made us a target. The expert report attempts to attribute blame to us by using 'ctrl+f' (search) for the word 'fire' in the regulations. We issue licenses according to Article 5. We do not perform inspections of the documents. The documents are presented to me, and we issue the license based on those documents. The matters to be checked during the finalization inspection are specified in Article 14. The second paragraph of Article 5 states that these documents are checked during subsequent inspections.

In public rest areas, these documents are checked on-site. The license for the hotel was issued in 2007, and the correction license was issued in 2008. I was not in office at that time. There is a statement in the fire department report for that license indicating it is 'suitable.' If a tourism operation certificate has replaced the workplace opening license and the same document holder still exists, there is no obligation to obtain a workplace opening certificate.

This is because a workplace opening license is not the final document for a hotel to begin operations. A tourism operation certificate is the final document. A tourism operation certificate must be obtained within 6 months of receiving a workplace opening license; if the certificate cannot be obtained, accommodation activities cannot be conducted. We perform the finalization inspection mentioned in Article 13. The inspections we conduct in hotels are inspections for lack of licensing. There are shops inside that sell ski equipment and other small shops. If these shops belong to the business owner, no separate license is sought; if they belong to someone else, a new workplace license is required," she said.

"I WAS DETAINED AND ARRESTED WITHOUT SAYING GOODBYE TO MY DAUGHTER"

Stating that she was detained and arrested without being able to say goodbye to her daughter, Erdoğan said, "An application was made to open a restaurant serving alcohol. I requested the necessary documents. Since the restaurant was inside the hotel, I requested a fire department report for the entire Grand Kartal facility. The report delivered to us on January 15 was only for the restaurant. I did not grant the license approval. In the law on the protection of buildings from fire, the person issuing the license is not held responsible. The employer, the business owner, the architect, the engineer, and the building inspection firm are guilty in proportion to their negligence. Was there a flight risk that I was detained and arrested from my workplace without saying goodbye to my daughter? Furthermore, I have no responsibility. Organizations with a tourism operation certificate are inspected only by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism," she said.

The trial was adjourned until 09:15 tomorrow morning. Those attending the trial left the courtroom and the premises.