A memorial ceremony was held Tuesday night at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the Kartalkaya Ski Resort in Türkiye's Bolu province on the first anniversary of a deadly fire that killed 78 people.

Families of the victims and members of the public gathered in front of the hotel at 3:17 a.m., the exact time the fire broke out one year ago.

Photographs of those who lost their lives were placed in front of the hotel as mourners laid carnations, lit candles and released wish balloons into the sky. The names of the victims and angel figures were projected by laser onto the hotel’s facade.

Some family members were seen in tears, embracing one another for comfort.

Abdurrahman Gençbay, head of the 9th Chamber of Türkiye’s Council of State, who lost his son Yiğit Gençbay in the fire, told reporters that 78 lives were lost on a pitch-dark night exactly one year earlier.

Gençbay said a fire that could have been extinguished easily turned into a catastrophe due to "organized wrongdoing, mistakes, negligence and intent,” becoming the world’s sixth-deadliest hotel fire in terms of loss of life.

"It was a picture that did not befit this society,” he said. "We were confronted with this picture a year ago and lost our children, our loved ones.”

Gençbay said the pain of the families had grown over time and had never diminished.

"Our pain never faded. Time did not dull it; it intensified it,” he said. "But there was one thing we held on to – justice. We wanted to believe that those involved in this organized wrongdoing would receive the punishment they deserved.”

He said a verdict issued by the Bolu 1st High Criminal Court after nearly a year of proceedings met the public conscience and could serve as a precedent.

"For such organized wrongdoing to never happen again, and for the perception of impunity to be removed from society, the court issued a decision that can set an example,” Gençbay said. "It resonated with society. Mothers who face wrongdoing now demand ‘Kartalkaya justice.’ Faith has returned that justice can be delivered not only in the hereafter, but in this world.”

Yiğit Gençbay’s aunt, Sibel Özdemir, said the families had lived with constant grief for 365 days.

"We died and stayed in this world,” she said. "There has not been a single moment we did not think of them, pray for them or remember them.”

Özdemir said she lost her nephew, who survived the fire but reentered the hotel to rescue others and died, as well as his friend Alp Mercan and 34 children.

"We are trying to continue living,” she said. "For our loved ones and those left behind, our only wish is that justice is served.”

Oktay Akişli, who lost his mother Gülçin, his brother Şenol and his 11-year-old niece Mina Akişli, said he had lost everything.

"For a year, we have only breathed,” Akişli said. "But we never gave up pursuing justice for our loved ones, and we never will.”

Supporters also attended the ceremony. Can Kaya, who traveled from Istanbul, cited a quote by Russian author Leo Tolstoy: "If you feel pain, you are alive. If you feel the pain of others, you are human.”

"I came here to share the pain of others,” Kaya said.