Father who Lost his Son in Soma: Nobody Takes the Blame, Did Our Children Commit Suicide then?

İsmail Çolak, who lost his son in Soma mine disaster, told bianet that the relatives of the deceased will follow up the trial until they find justice. He said, the 301 miners will not come back, but at least, working conditions of the surviving workers should be improved.

An interim decision was issued by the Akhisar High Criminal Court on Friday relating to the mine disaster in western Turkey in May 2014 which left 301 miners dead. According to the decision, the next hearing, which involves 46 defendants, 8 of whom are currently in custody, will commence on October 13.

İsmail Çolak is one of the fathers who lost his son in the mining disaster. Like his son Uğur, İsmail was also a miner himself (but now retired), who worked in the same coal mine as his son for 25 years. He told bianet that the defendants told the court nothing but only protected their superiors’ “interests” during their testimonies.

He said: “They [defendants] are saying this is an accident; this is a massacre of workers. They do not approve of the expert’s report [on the case]. They are saying, no one is guilty in order to clear their names. Nobody takes the blame. Then, our children must have committed suicide. My son’s body was burned, I barely recognized him.”

“There is fear, pressure, fear of being hungry. They [the company officials/employees] obligated the surviving miners to choose from either ‘hunger above’ or ‘death below’.”

“The capital and the government are concertedly protecting one another. We want the real guilty one, the state, to be on trial. These mines belong to the state, it is responsible of their inspection. There is a chain of neglects here.”

“The justice is functioning for the rich, not the poor-fellow. We will continue until we find justice, [will first apply to] Constitutional Court, if that does not work out, then the European Court of Human Right. 440 orphans and 255 young widows remained behind. We stand behind our case, we will go all lengths.”

“Whatever the result is, we know that our children will not come back. But, we give a struggle for the other miners, for work safety to prevail and for working conditions to improve.” (NV/DA)

 Click here to read the article in Turkish