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15 May 2014

Deadly mine disaster triggers angry protests across Turkey

Protests targeting the government following the Soma coal mine disaster are violently suppressed – but will Prime Minister Recep Erdogan once again ride out public anger?

Turkey will hold national elections in August amid a corruption scandal involving Mr Erdogan and a ban on Twitter and YouTube.

Mr Erdogan swept local elections but the mining disaster in Soma, a small town in western Turkey, has triggered renewed demonstrations against the government.

With rescuers still pulling bodies from the site in western Turkey, anger swept a country that has seen a decade of rapid economic growth but still suffers from one of the world’s worst workplace safety records.

Opponents of Mr Erdogan – who has already faced mass protests against his rule in the past year – have attacked his government for leasing mines to parts of the private sector cosy with the ruling party, and accuse it of ignoring repeated warnings about their safety.

Images of a senior adviser to the Turkish prime minister kicking a protester against the government’s record on mine safety, provoked yet more anger as it was shared on social media.

‘Black as coal’

In Istanbul, police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse several thousand people, some wearing miners’ hard hats and headlamps. Police also clashed with demonstrators in the capital Ankara and there were protests in other cities.

Many took to social media using #gunkomurkarasi – meaning “the day is as black as coal” to express their outrage at the government’s handling of the crisis. Black ribbons were also posted online as people united in grief.

Andrew Gardner, researcher on Turkey at Amnesty International, said today: “This was a tragedy that should have been avoided. The long history of deaths in mines in Turkey raises chilling questions over workers’ safety.

“The fact that the government rejected recent calls by parliamentarians to investigate serious work-related accidents is nothing short of shocking.”

Mr Gardner described the air “heavy with tear gas” outside his office in Istanbul where he saw a man shot with a plastic bullet at close range, apparently for “shouting”.