Bartın mine blast: Resurfaced state audit report warns of safety deficiencies

Funeral of a worker attended by Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu on October 16. (Photo: AA)

After President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan linked Friday's (October 14) mine explosion in the northern province of Bartın to "destiny," reports about miner deaths in his era and a state audit warning of possible accidents have resurfaced.

The president has been criticized after telling reporters, "We are people who believe in the plan of destiny," during his visit to Bartın one day after the explosion that killed 41 workers and injured 28. "We should know that these will always happen."

However, a report by the Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG), a group monitoring workplace accidents, shows that some 1,890 workers had been killed between November 2002 when Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power and December 2021.

This number accounts for two-thirds of the number of all mine workers killed throughout the history of the Republic.

Türkiye's deadliest mining accident also happened in the AKP era, when 301 miners were killed in an explosion in a coal mine in Soma, Manisa, in 2014.

A 2019 audit report by the Court of Accounts has also resurfaced following the explosion in the mine operated by the state-owned coal enterprise.

The report says, because of the insufficient number of workers in the Amasra mine, "critical malfunctions cannot be responded to in a timely manner," which adversely affected productivity and job safety.

There were also problems in the underground communication system and the hazardous gas measurement system, the report notes.

The authorities said the explosion had been caused by firedamp, the general name for inflammable gasses released in coal mines.

The workers had been able to smell gas for over a week before the explosion, relatives of some of the killed workers said.

Criticism

Opposition politicians and professional groups have criticized Erdoğan for using "destiny" as an excuse for safety deficiencies.

"For God's sake, in which age are we living?" Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), told reporters on Saturday. "Why do these mining accidents, mass killings occur only in Türkiye? Is there no mining in other countries in the world?"

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Pervin Buldan said yesterday, "What happened is murder, it is the crime of negligence. And what happened is the way of life that the AKP-MHP rule deems appropriate for laborers."

Emin Koramaz, head of the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB/UCTEA), tweeted, "If you send workers hundreds of meters underground without taking the necessary precautions, inspections and creating safe conditions, you can't call it accident. This is outright murder."

Ali Babacan, leader of the Democracy and Progress (DEVA) Party and a former senior figure of Erdoğan's AKP, said, "It is time to express objections as the public. We object to losses of lives, injuries. We all believe in destiny, but precautions first." (VK)