7TH YEAR OF SOMA MASSACRE
‘Both 301 miners and the law under debris’
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Today marks the 7th year since 301 miners lost their lives in an occupational homicide in Soma, Manisa on May 13, 2014.
On this occasion, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Union of Turkey (DİSK) and Health and Safety Labor Watch Department Head Seyit Aslan have released a statement underlining that "it is the duty of us all to not forget the Soma massacre and to not let it be forgotten."
"We will call the responsible parties to account for Soma sooner or later. It is an inevitable duty for us to bring the days when we will not die while working in this country, where we can work and live in humane conditions," the statement has read, calling on everyone to lay claim to the trial over the Soma massacre that will continue in Manisa's Akhisar on May 24, 2021.
CLICK - We Commemorate 301 Soma Miners with Their Names
Criticism to the judiciary
The statement is briefly as follows:
"7 years ago today, on May 13, 2014, they massacred 301 mine workers in Soma. When we consider what has happened in the following period, we see that we witnessed some legal practices that made us more and more outraged, let alone relieving our sorrow.
"After the lives of 301 miners were trapped under debris, it has been followed by the debris of the law.
"The judicial system took the trial away from Soma, where the massacre happened; it did not try the top officials who had responsibility; it almost rewarded the mine's bosses and executives by penalizing them not for 'eventual intent', but for 'gross negligence', taking care that the capital's most savage 'production system of go on, go on' would continue.
'They are not brought to account'
"The working conditions in mines are known by all. The ones who did not conduct the necessary inspections for the capital that disregarded the precautions for workers' health and work safety deep underground, those who let this work order continue for the massacre waiting to happen in Soma, the ones who turned precarious and subcontracted work into the main manufacturing type of intense exploitation and those who posed obstacles to unionization have not been brought to account in any way at all.
"Those who said, 'Nothing will be the same anymore' after the Soma massacre have not changed anything; everything has continued as it was. Because this government represents this character of the capital.
'Legal system plunged into darkness'
"The fact that the ones who openly left 301 people for dead are free in a country where the ones who want democracy, lay claim to press freedom, defend life, demand peace and criticize the government are put in jails shows us the darkness that the legal system has been plunged into.
"Most recently, the 12th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation reversed its ruling dated 2020 upon an appeal and the arrested defendants of the Soma massacre case, Soma Coal Enterprises Inc. General Manager Ramazan Doğru, Vice Manager İsmail Adalı and Business Manager Akın Çelik, were released from prison on February 5, 2021.
"301 miners lost their lives as a result of a massacre that was known to happen as a result of the cruelty of the savage system of exploitation where workers' health and work safety were disregarded. We are faced with an order which has become a great threat to human life; we are faced with an order which has collapsed legally, politically, economically and morally.
'It is our duty to not let it be forgotten'
'We emphasize it once again: It is the duty of us all to not forget the Soma massacre and to not let it be forgotten.
"We will call the responsible parties to account for Soma sooner or later. It is an inevitable duty for us to bring the days when we will not die while working in this country, where we can work and live in humane conditions.
"We call on you to lay claim to the trial that will continue in Akhisar on May 24, 2021 and to solidarize with families. This trial is the trial of us all."
What happened?On May 13, 2014, an explosion in the Soma coal mine in the western Manisa province caused an underground fire in the mine, which burned until May 15. 301 workers were killed and 162 were injured in what was the worst mine incident in the country's history. The trial began on April 13, 2015, and ended on July 11, 2018. There were 45 defendants and 162 injured workers as victim plaintiffs in the case. Akhisar Heavy Penal Court sentenced Soma Coal Enterprises Inc. Board Chair Can Gürkan to 15 years in prison for "killing by negligence" and banned him from mining business for three years. Soma Coal Enterprises Inc. General Director Ramazan Doğru, mining engineer and Deputy Operations Manager İsmail Adalı, Operations Manager Akın Çelik and mining engineer Ertan Arsoy were given jail terms from 15 years to 22 years and 6 months. Thirty-seven defendants, including Alp Gürkan, the owner of the company and the father of Can Gürkan, were acquitted. İzmir Regional Court of Justice 14th Penal Chamber upheld the prison sentences for the five defendants on April 19, 2019. Can Gürkan was released from prison on the same day. The Court of Cassation 12th Penal Chamber reversed the decision on September 30, 2020. It stated that Can Gürkan targeted increased production without taking required safety measures and setting up a ventilation system despite knowing that there was a high risk of fire. It stated that Gürkan, Doğru Çelik and Adalı should be sentenced for "causing deaths by probable intent" 301 times and "causing injury by probable intent" 261 times. All arrested defendants of the Soma case were released on February 5, 2021. |
(NÖ/SD)