Turkish education ministry issues reprimand, imposes forfeiture of one day's pay after deadly dorm fire

Turkey's Education Ministry has issued a reprimand to a district director of national education following complaints by parents whose children were killed in a dormitory fire in the southern district of Aladağ in the Adana province in November 2016 which had killed 12, including 11 teenage girls.

The ministry launched an investigation into Mehmet Aktaş, the Aladağ district director of education, after the families of the killed children applied to authorities with claims that the Aladağ office "had led them to the dormitory."

Additionally, upon the investigation result, a district governor's office staff and a district national education directorate staff were imposed forfeiture of one day's pay for issuing a fabricated report in the latest dorm inspection indicating that all the precautions regarding the building were taken. 

The two staff, Cihan Ünal and Davut Gökçeli, released the inspection report as though the necessary provisions against a potential fire were made, although this was not the case. Aktaş was indicated not to have performed his "supervision" task, later being dismissed from his duty as the Aladağ director of the local education office and reassigned last month as a teacher to an Imam Hatip religious secondary school.

The criminal investigation launched by the Aladağ Chief Public Prosecutor's Office into the incident, on the other hand, is still ongoing. Aktaş, Ünal, Gökçeli, and two other civil servants are accused of "causing many people's deaths involuntarily."

In the investigation report, the dormitory manager, Cuma Ali Genç, was also found to be at fault as he did not have the relevant fire trainings at the dorm, not to have hired a cook, and not to have established an internet room in the dorm. The...