One hundred ten Turkish coal miners who had marched 200 kilometers (125 miles) to stage a hunger strike over their unpaid wages were detained on Tuesday morning, Agence France-Presse reported, citing their union.
After a nine-day march to Ankara from the neighboring province of Eskişehir, the miners arrived on Monday for a topless sit-in outside the country’s energy ministry building in the Turkish capital, before being surrounded by the police.
“We are hungry,” several of them had written across their bare skin.
“We were waiting to speak to someone outside the energy ministry. The only response we received was the arrest of 110 of our colleagues,” the Bağımsız Maden-İş miners’ union said on X.
Police had also intervened when the miners arrived in Ankara on Monday, detaining 33 workers.
The lignite miners are demanding the payment of outstanding wages and redundancy pay from their employer, Doruk Mining.
The mine was operated by a company seized by Turkey’s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) over alleged links to the faith-based Gülen movement after a 2016 coup attempt. It was transferred in 2022 to Doruk Mining, owned by former ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmaker Sabahattin Yıldız.
Workers are demanding the payment of months of unpaid wages, compensation for those dismissed before and after the TMSF takeover, the abolition of unpaid leave practices, the reinstatement of dismissed union members and the provision of safe working conditions.
The miners previously staged an underground hunger strike in 2023 and held protests in Ankara in 2025 over months of unpaid wages, but their grievances remain unresolved.
“In this country, workers don’t count, only money matters. … Shame on those who run this country,” mining union chief Gökay Çakır told the striking miners on Monday evening.
When questioned by Agence France-Presse, the energy ministry declined to comment for the time being.
