Turkey: Opposition exploits human mine tragedy!

-DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL

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Hundreds of miners choked to death after an explosion ignited a fire that produced noxious fumes. MAY 14, 2014. This Turkey's worst mining disaster has shaken the nation and ruling AKP party.

Turkey government has called a halt to the Soma mine rescue operation after two more bodies were found, raising the death toll to 301. The bodies of all miners trapped after the mine collapsed are now thought to be recovered.

In 1999, an earthquake in the north-western town of Izmit killed

17,000 people. Turkey exacts a high price from its governments for failing to deal with disasters.

True, Turkey has the highest rate of mine deaths in the world, with an average of 7.22 fatalities per million tons of coal. 1,235 workers in all sectors were killed in 2013 and another 396 in 2014 so far.

The Turkish government, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself have expressed deep sorrow and responded to growing opposition outrage with repression and riot police.

Government of Turkey and company officials report that up to 18 miners are still unaccounted for and may be trapped in the mine, while workers have said the true number could be far higher.

The precise cause of the fire on Tuesday has not been definitely determined. Officials initially said a power transformer exploded, cutting off electricity to elevators and suffocating hundreds of miners, who likely died of carbon monoxide poisoning. In order to cut costs, Soma manufactured its own transformers.

But the inside-outside enemies of Islam and Islamist regime in Turkey are quick enough trying to exploit the mine blast to destabilize the nation. They describe the mine tragedy as massacre. The Soma “massacre” thus ranks as the deadliest mine disaster in Turkish history.

Warnings about the dangerous conditions in the Soma mine have existed for years. In 2010, the Chamber of Architects and Engineers (TMMOB) produced a 152-page report, “Work Accidents in Mines,” that documented specific safety concerns that made a disastrous accident likely. The report concluded, “no production should be made at the Soma mine before the necessary research has been completed. Carrying out production with the lack of experience might lead to disaster.” The mine was particularly dangerous because of the high levels of methane, the TMMOB report concluded.

The chamber of Electrical Engineers reported that inspections after the explosion revealed “that the systems to sense poisonous and explosive gases in the mine and the systems to manage the air systems were insufficient and old.” Site manager Akin Celik told reporters that the mine had closed one emergency refuge when excavation work moved to a lower area. Miners were building, but had not finished, a new safety chamber at the lower level, he said. The owner of the company, Alp Gurman, said the mine met the highest standards laid out by the law in Turkey. The company, he said, had no legal obligation to build safety chambers.

The engineers argued that the deaths were caused by a coal fire deep underground, with flames and smoke spread through the mine’s ventilation system. Since the Soma mine was fully privatized in 2005, the company that owns the mine, Soma Komur Isletmeleri, boasted of having slashed costs by more than 80 percent, from $130 per ton to under $24 per ton. Miners are paid poverty wages, operations sped up and safety neglected in order to funnel profits to the company’s investors.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been criticised for appearing insensitive in his reaction to the disaster. Tuesday's disaster occurred when an explosion sent carbon monoxide gas into the mine's tunnels while 787 miners were underground. Mine operator Soma Holding has denied any negligence. A representative said an unexplained build-up of heat in the mine appeared to have caused the collapse.

There have been several anti-government protests across the country over the last four days. People across Turkey are travelling to Soma to offer condolences, but the governor has banned all gatherings and checkpoints have been set up to garner support to pretest against the government. .

Protesters have clashed with police near Soma. Demonstrations were held elsewhere over Turkey's worst-ever mine disaster. Demonstrations by opposition have erupted throughout the country, as more details emerge exposing the disaster as preventable and caused by a lack of basic safety procedures. Hundreds of people marched through the western city of Izmir and there were protests in Istanbul and the capital, Ankara.

Turkish police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons against thousands of protesters in the city of Soma, the location of a deadly mine explosion. Some trade unions have called for another protest.

The TMMOB report also draws attention to the lack of any alternative routes for breathing or escaping, which made the rescue of the workers almost impossible in case of an accident. The machines were whistling for two years. One miner said they are digging areas that had methane where they should not have dug.” As for supposed safety inspections, the miner said inspectors came, but they only reviewed the main tunnels. The ventilation in the mine pit is adversely affected since workers can’t be evacuated from the mine urgently and safely.

Dangerous gasses cannot be tracked at any time, necessary measures cannot be taken at the right time and evacuation of the mine cannot be maintained immediately.

The reports says there is no refuge chamber for miners to access in the case of a fire. Such a chamber existed during an earlier phase of production, but when the mining was extended deeper underground nothing was constructed for the new location. The owners of the mine have claimed that they were in the process of building a new chamber, and that these chambers are not required by law.

The disaster has exposed the brutal exploitation of the miners, among other weaker sections. Now the mine blast has given a tool for the opposition to play antigovernment demonstrations to destabilize Turkey.  Both opposition and foreign critics are keen only to find faults with the rulers.

Amid Turkey’s rapid industrialization, the demand for energy has increased rapidly. Turkey has few oil and gas reserves, but an abundance of coal. The industry was privatized under the A.K.P., and the mine here was taken over by a pro-A.K.P. businessman who has boasted in public of lowering the costs of the business. Coal has also become closely linked to the A.K.P. at election time, with the party handing out free coal and food to voters.

A Turkish engineers' association criticized mine ventilation and safety equipment this week as being "insufficient and old." A lack of safety inspections has caused 100 coal mines to be closed in the last three years, according to Turkey's Energy Ministry. President Abdullah Gul, speaking as he visited Soma, said he was sure the investigation already begun would "shed light" on what regulations are needed.

"Whatever is necessary will be done," he said.

Why do they criticize Turkey?

The AKP government is widely criticised at home and abroad for its response. Its halting actions were seen as the symptom of an ineffective government. It eventually lost power in 2002 - to Erdogan.

There has been a concerted effort by the enemies of Islam to destabilize even the former Ottoman Empire, now Turkey under Islamist rule of AKP party.

Instead of sympathizing with the turkey and its government, most western countries have shamelessly resorted to criticize Turkey and its government when their own records are just as bad.

The enemies of Islam have been exploiting any situation in Turkey to slam the Islamist government.  The Turkish government itself offered opportunity for the opposite to stage demonstration with its own construction project at Gezi Park Istanbul

Anger with the government or misusing the affected mines against the government does not necessarily translate into support for the opposition.

Over the last decade, Erdogan's loyal coalition of the common class and religious conservatives has won him three general elections. But now, Erdogan faces the possibility of new opponents – the miners, who are angered by the lack of safety at the Soma mine and who are used by the opposition to advance its anti-Islam objective. .

The Turkish opposition as well as its western backers now in fact focuses on the presidential poll in Turkey because Islamist premier Erdogan is sure to be elected president. In early June, many expect the prime minister to announce that he is running for president in direct elections to be held in August. They want to destabilize Turkey by creating disturbances in Turkey so that people can reject an Islamist president. Both non-Muslims and anti-Muslims along with pro west Muslims want end Islamic rule in Turkey They all want a puppet regime in Istanbul to take orders from western capitals

Islam is the target of notorious NATO war in Islamic world and, unfortunately, Turkey is a key member of NATO.