The deadliest industrial disaster in Turkey\u2019s history has inflicted a deep wound on the country. It also has held up a mirror to the present day Turkey.<\/p>\n
The accident at coal mine in Soma, in the western province of Manisa so far has left 292 people dead, still some missing, countless families grieving and the whole country in a deep shock.<\/p>\n
Anger and indignation have been felt far beyond Soma, a town of 100,000 people, where most families depend on the work in the mines to earn their livelihood. Today, Soma is a place of mourners, some still searching for their relatives; others weeping next to rows and rows of freshly dug graves.<\/p>\n
Four days after the accident, the cause of the explosion is still not known.\u00a0 In a chaotic press conference, Soma Holding, the company that owns the mine has failed to explain what had happened. They insisted that they complied with all existing safety regulations and the company should not be blamed. It did not satisfy anyone.<\/p>\n
The government, too, refused all responsibility. Visiting the town 24 hours after the disaster, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan talked about such accidents being \u201cin the nature of this business\u201d, using a religiously loaded term \u201cfitrat\u201d, meaning it is the miners\u2019 destiny.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s please not pretend such incidents do not occur in mines.These are ordinary developments. There is something like labor accidents in literature\u201d Mr Erdo\u011fan said; going onto giving examples of fatal mining accidents in the late 19th and early 20th century in countries like Britain, the United States, France and China.<\/p>\n
Comparing Turkey\u2019s present bleak safety record with that of the Victorian era Britain is absurd. Turkey\u2019s safety record in mining compared to other coal producing countries\u00a0 is very bleak\u00a0 indeed.\u00a0 . More than three thousand miners died in accidents since 1941, mostly from methane gas explosions, fires and mine collapses.\u00a0 According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, last year alone, some 13 thousand miners suffered accidents at work<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s poor workplace safety record is not limited to mining industry, either. According to International Labor Organization (ILO) figures, Turkey ranks first in Europe and third in the world for fatal work accidents , seven times greater than the EU average.<\/p>\n
Turkey\u2019s mines have lax safety standards, insufficient safety inspections, substandard working conditions and poor training of its labour force.\u00a0 In recent years, privatization and deregulation compounded these problems. Outsourcing and putting profit before safety have become much more widespread.\u00a0 \u00a0There is little awareness of health and safety issues among the public. The mainstream media is not interested. \u00a0Main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party raised the issue of poor safety record in Soma only 20 days ago. The motion, rejected by the ruling Justice and Development Party for being an irrelevant attempt by the opposition to clog up the parliamentary agenda, was initially ignored by the media. It only emerged after the mining disaster in Soma. \u00a0During his news conference in Soma, Prime Minister claimed that the motion was not about Soma; however \u00a0the transcripts and recordings of the parliamentary speech by the opposition deputy suggest otherwise.<\/p>\n
So far, no one is blamed; no one is held accountable for this devastating accident in Soma.\u00a0 Asking probing questions are met with angry responses from the government. \u00a0\u00a0Demonstrations in other towns were dispersed with water cannon, tear gas and heavy handed police action.<\/p>\n
In recent years, there have been significant changes to Turkey\u2019s mining industry. State-owned coal mines such as the one in Soma had been transferred to private companies known to be friendly to the government. Two years ago, the authority to grant licenses for mining was transferred from The General Directorate of Mining Affairs\u00a0\u00a0 to the prime minister himself.<\/p>\n
According to the president of a mining trade union Dev Maden Sen Tayfun G\u00f6rg\u00fcn , \u00a0since the state run companies were privatized, accidents became much more \u00a0common. He called the deaths in Soma \u201cmurders, not accidents \u201cand he said that everyone, from the trade unions to inspectors, from ministers to the prime minister himself, played a role;everyone carried a responsibility for these deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n
The world has discovered what many in Turkey have known all along. \u00a0Prime Minister has an explosive temper and little regard for the accepted norms of behavior for a statesman.\u00a0 In Soma, he scolded a journalist for questioning safety at the mine; later he lashed out at grieving local people that booed him.\u00a0 If widely available eye-witness accounts and less clear camera recordings are to be believed,\u00a0 Mr Erdogan slapped a protestor and swore . Meanwhile, one of his close aids repeatedly kicked a man already on the ground, pinned down by two soldiers. The government spokesman Huseyin Celik claimed that the aid was acting in self-defense\u00a0\u00a0 and as a result of being attacked, he had to have a doctor\u2019s certificate keeping him off work for a week.<\/p>\n
As if being kicked and punched by the politicians weren\u2019t enough, the mourners of Soma have discovered the bitter taste of pepper spray, too.\u00a0 Four days after losing nearly 300 hundred of their men, peacefully protesting townspeople were bruised further when they came under police attack, using tear gas and rubber bullets.<\/p>\n
The mirror held up to the country by the Soma disaster reflects an image of a country profoundly sad and equally mad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The deadliest industrial disaster in Turkey\u2019s history has inflicted a deep wound on the country. It also has held up a mirror to the present day Turkey. The accident at coal mine in Soma, in the western province of Manisa so far has left 292 people dead, still some missing, countless families grieving and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}