Families of victims of a hotel fire that killed 78 people in the northwestern resort of Kartalkaya have appealed to Turkey’s Council of State to overturn the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s refusal to authorize investigations into 12 senior officials.
The officials include Deputy Minister Nadir Alpaslan and Investment and Enterprises Director General Neşe Çıldık.
The Grand Kartal Hotel, a 12-story ski resort in Bolu province’s Kartalkaya mountain area, caught fire shortly after midnight on January 21, killing 78 people, including 36 children, and injuring 133. Entire families perished in the blaze, which has become a symbol of what critics call Turkey’s systemic failures in building safety, inspections and political accountability.
Families take appeal to top administrative court
The appeal was filed with the Council of State’s First Chamber by attorney Onur Fırat Kaynun on behalf of victims’ families. Under Turkey’s Law No. 4483, prosecutors cannot investigate civil servants without an “investigation permission” from their ministry. Refusals can be challenged before the Council of State.
The ministry has so far allowed investigations into only three officials — acting Controllers Board chair Levent Kırcan and inspectors Barış Başayvaz and Abdülkadir Eren, who most recently examined the hotel. But permission was denied for 12 higher-ranking names, including Deputy Minister Alpaslan and Director General Çıldık.
The families’ filing argues that the ministry is both empowered and obliged to inspect licensed hotels at least once a year, even without a complaint. It says ministerial orders kept the Grand Kartal Hotel outside routine checks after 2018 and calls on the ministry to disclose how many proactive inspections took place since then.
The appeal cites internal memoranda from September 2024 suggesting that senior managers pressured subordinates to ignore circulars, alter inspection reports and conceal safety risks. It claims that responsibility does not end with the Controllers Board but extends to the director general and deputy minister who oversaw the unit.
The families also ask whether the hotel’s original municipal fire clearance remained valid under current licensing rules, whether ministry staff warned provincial authorities if they detected lapses and why no internal probe was opened into staff flagged in the ministry’s own Inspection Board report.
Trial continues in Bolu
The appeal comes amid the ongoing criminal case in Bolu, where 32 defendants — including hotel owner Halit Ergül, his relatives, managers, municipal officials and fire department staff — are on trial. Nineteen remain in jail during the trial.
On July 17 the trial court rejected a motion to hear Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy as a witness and declined to bring charges against him, separating issues concerning other public officials into a distinct file. On the same day it ordered the arrest of firefighter İrfan Acar as well as fired kitchen worker Faysal Yaver under judicial supervision with a travel ban and extended house arrest for four defendants on trial without detention.
On September 15 the prosecutor submitted a 21-page final opinion, seeking harsh sentences. For seven defendants — including hotel owner Ergül and general manager Emir Aras — the prosecution demanded up to 1,950 years in prison on 78 counts of homicide, plus additional terms for injury and property damage.
The opinion also calls for up to 22-and-a-half years for 20 defendants on charges of “causing multiple deaths and injuries by negligence,” and two to 15 years for four others on homicide and injury. Acquittal was requested for kitchen worker Enver Öztürk.
The next hearing is scheduled for September 22.
