Turkey’s four biggest unions were to hold a one-day protest strike yesterday, as anger over the country’s worst mining accident mounts, with 282 workers confirmed dead and scores still trapped underground.
The unions said workers’ lives were being put at risk to cut costs and demanded that those responsible for the collapse of a coal mine in the western town of Soma in Manisa Province be brought to account.
“Hundreds of our workers have been left to die from the very beginning by being forced to work in cruel production processes to achieve maximum profits,” the unions said in a joint statement, calling on people to wear black.
Photo: Reuters
Anger at the disaster has swept across Turkey, where mining accidents are a frequent occurrence.
On Wednesday, thousands of protesters clashed with police in Ankara and Istanbul, accusing the government and mining industry of negligence.
The prosecutor’s office in Soma has launched an investigation into the cause of the disaster, which has added to the pressure on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan has rejected claims of government culpability, saying that “such accidents happen.”
In an apparent attempt to downplay the disaster, the prime minister compared the disaster to mining disasters elsewhere, saying that “204 people died in the UK in 1862 and 361 people in 1864”.
It is unclear how many workers are still trapped underground following the huge explosion at the mine on Tuesday, which was believed to have been set off by an electrical fault.
Mining operators put the figure at 90, but reports from rescue workers on the scene suggest the figure could be far higher. Most of the victims died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Erdogan was forced to take refuge in a shop to shelter from furious reactions from relatives of the victims and the missing, some of whom began kicking his vehicle.
An adviser of Erdogan was photographed kicking a protester in Soma, sparking outrage on social media.
Public anger also spilled out onto the streets, where police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse between 3,000 and 4,000 protesters in Ankara, as well as thousands of demonstrators in Istanbul.
The disaster has added to the political pressure on Erdogan, who faced mass protests last summer and a huge corruption scandal involving his family and key allies in recent months.
Turkish Minister of Energy Taner Yildiz said early yesterday that the provisional toll had risen to 282 after more bodies were pulled out of the pit. No one has come out alive in the past 12 hours, he said.
Another 27 workers were being treated in hospital and families of the miners who died in the disaster have begun to retrieve their bodies from a makeshift morgue.
Raging fires have hampered rescue efforts and emergency workers have still not been able to reach two underground shafts.
Early reports said 787 workers were underground when the blast occurred. By late Wednesday, “close to 450” workers had been rescued, according to the mine operator, Soma Komur Inc.
However, accounts from rescue workers cast doubt over these numbers.
Erdem Bakin, a doctor with the Search and Rescue organization, said only about 70 to 80 people who were between the mine entrance and the transformer that exploded had survived.
A lawmaker from the opposition Republican People’s Party said it asked parliament last month to investigate work-related accidents at coal mines in Soma, but the government turned down the request.
“We receive tip-offs every day that workers’ lives are under threat,” lawmaker Ozgur Ozel told Turkish media. “We lawmakers from Manisa are tired of going to miner funerals.”
Turkey’s Ministry of Labor and Social Security said the mine had been inspected eight times in the past four years, most recently on March 17, and was found to comply with safety regulations.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
RSS