Ayhan Yüksel, chairman of the Chamber of Mining Engineers, has criticized the Turkish government’s policies and said they were the number one reason for mining disasters in the country.
Speaking to the Birgün daily on the occasion of December 4, International Miners Day, Yüksel said since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, more than 2,000 miners had died in accidents across the country.
“In the last 10 years, we have celebrated International Miners Day maybe five times. The rest of the time we had to commemorate those miners who lost their lives in accidents and disasters,” he said.
Yüksel added that the government had normalized mining disasters by saying it was a natural part of the job. This sentiment was expressed in 2014 by then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after 301 miners were killed in western Turkey in what is known as the nation’s worst mining disaster.
The fatal accident was caused by a fire inside a coal mine in the Soma district of Manisa province in May 2014. The deaths were caused by carbon monoxide spread through the mine by the fire.
According to Yüksel, mining companies did not take necessary precautions to prevent accidents because the government does not enforce regulations. Furthermore, such companies were not adequately inspected and were not penalized if they were culpable in an accident.
“The government’s policies are aimed at protecting companies and their profits. Unfortunately, the safety of miners is not a priority. When it comes to safe mining, it is crucial to stick to proper techniques, but in our country what we’re seeing is a complete disregard for proven safety protocols,” said Yüksel.
Tayfun Görgün from a left-wing mining union said without proper inspections and planning, mining accidents would be unavoidable in Turkey. He added that companies were completely unchecked because workers were in practice not allowed to unionize.
“Workers who do unionize are fired, or not hired in the first place,” he said. “Unions like ours do their best so people can work without fearing death or disability, but we are not supported in our work.”
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), Turkey is a leading country in fatal mining accidents. Only last year 41 miners were killed in an explosion in northwestern Bartın province. The opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) said a report by Turkey’s Court of Accounts, a state audit authority, had warned in 2019 of risks at the same mine.
Speaking to the media, Emin Koramaz, head of the Union of Turkish Engineers and Architects Chambers, said inspections were not carried out adequately partly because staff numbers had been reduced, cutting qualified personnel. He added that mining accidents had become routine in Turkey because mining science was being ignored and that there was a lack of technical knowledge and infrastructure.
