Do not ever go into illegal mines!

Our tragedy is that we live in a country where “a good scare is worth more than good advice.” We collect ourselves only with foreseeable, preventable major torments.

The Soma disaster, before anything else, should cause us to shake ourselves.

Imagine… I don’t believe it is true at all, but it was reported that this mine was a relatively “appropriate, decent” one. 

Well, what about those which are not “decent”?

Let’s talk about them because it is time both for the government and the employers to take responsibility and review themselves immediately and pull the working conditions of the country upward from the status of an undeveloped country. 

Otherwise, there will be more pain to be suffered, more labor murders to be seen.

Look, we also have another bleeding wound, such as illegal mines. Illegal coal mine management also means the illegal usage of public property.

Let’s go past this… In all kinds of activities in these illegal mines, no attention is paid to engineering science and techniques. In those places, there is no trace of occupational health and occupational safety.   

Do the workers want to commit suicide and thus work in those places? Well, the answer to this is also known: Economic desperation.

The multiple-digit national income per capita that the political power can’t do without boasting about and the economic growth have not been tangent to these people; they are miles away from them.

The head of the Zonguldak Branch of the Chamber of Mine Engineers, Erdoğan Kaymakçı, in the interview he gave to “Support for Those Seeking Justice Group” said the phenomenon of illegal mining in Zonguldak was a fact known both by the people and by the governor and police chief. He also added, “We do not know how many workers work in illegal mines. From time to time, we want to make some studies, but we are obstructed.”

These illegal mines are situated in difficult places to reach, in a mountainous and tough terrain; they may sometimes have entrances through a house. As its name says, it is illegal; against the law.

Since the authorities and the representatives in the province are aware of the situation, why do they not locate and identify them? Why are they not punished?

After the Soma disaster, they were asking, “Why are you targeting the prime minister?”

Well, for this reason: Because he does not do what he needs to do. The prime minister, who is even personally interested in the “coupon” plot at Istanbul’s Bakırköy district, why does he not give orders so that illegal mines are found?

Are we going to wait again for hundreds of workers to die for this gravity here to end?   

“Even though it is banned and despite police measures, if coal is able to be produced in illegal mines, then there should be a market, a buyer for that coal produced, right? Otherwise, how would this coal reach the consumer? And can such a situation occur without the security units and the relevant offices of the state not knowing about them,” Kaymakçı asked.

Really, can it happen?

What did the state do? They came up with something called the royalty method. In other words, it is the leasing method. Through this, they would have regulated the illegal mines and their owners under an official title.

However, this method exploded. In illegal mines, engineering science and technique are not applied. No checks are performed.

In a country where even the labor murders happening in legal mines are not called to account, where the criminals go unpunished, who will give the account of those dying in illegal mines?

Nobody, of course. They are invisible people for the state anyway, aren’t they?