An explosion at a coal mine in Turkey’s Ankara province on Thursday morning injured 14 workers, including one who is in serious condition, the TR724 news website reported.
Rescue teams were dispatched to the scene of the blast, which occurred due to a buildup of gas. According to a statement by the Ankara Governor’s Office, an investigation into the incident has been launched.
Mining accidents are worryingly common in Turkey as the country has tragically lost at least 2,188 miners in work-related accidents since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November 2002.
The recent incident sparked outrage among labor rights activists, who said regulations to minimize such accidents were still not in place.
“AKP policies are designed to exploit workers and oppress those who resist this exploitation,” said Erkan Bas from the Turkish Labor Party (TIP).
“The main cause of mining accidents is the exploitative mindset of the AKP government’s neoliberal, profit-driven policies, which view occupational health and safety measures as an ‘additional cost.’ We want to emphasize that no production should be allowed in any mine that fails to meet international occupational health and safety standards,” said the Education and Science Workers’ Union (Eğitim Sen).
“The mine, where 14 workers were injured — one seriously — in today’s collapse, was privatized just a month ago in a fire-sale deal for the equivalent of only one year’s worth of its revenue,” said Hakkı Özdal, who writes for the Evrensel daily.
Turkey’s worst mining disaster took place under AKP rule in May 2014 in the Soma district of western Manisa province, taking the lives of 301 miners. In addition to the miners who died, 162 others were injured in a fire inside the coal mine. The deaths were caused by carbon monoxide spread through the mine by the fire.
In another tragedy in October 2014 a lignite mine operated by Has Şekerler Mining in Ermenek, Karaman province, flooded, trapping 18 workers inside. After 38 days of search and rescue efforts, it was determined that all 18 workers had died.
In October 2022 a methane blast ripped through a mine in the small coal town of Amasra on Turkey’s Black Sea coast, operated by the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises (TTK), claiming the lives of 43 miners and injuring nine.
Lawyer Derviş Emre Aydın, who spoke to the Cumhuriyet newspaper about the trial of the defendants in the Amasra tragedy, complained about the slow progress and shortcomings in the investigation and legal proceedings.
In the most recent tragedy, some 10 million cubic meters of soil contaminated with cyanide and sulfuric acid tumbled down the heap leach pad of the Çöpler gold mine in the İliç district of Erzincan on February 13, 2024, leaving nine miners trapped. The rescue efforts following the disaster were hindered by the threat of further landslides.
The bodies of the miners were retrieved in the course of the following four months.
The disaster focused attention on the oversight and management of mining activities in the region and highlighted a series of ignored warnings and inspections.
