Ozgur Ozel is a Republican People’s Party deputy representing the Soma-Manisa district in Turkey’s Parliament. This essay was translated by Zeynep Tufekci from the Turkish.
MANISA, Turkey — On the morning of May 13, Turkey finally woke up from its deep slumber on workplace safety — but at the cost of 301 lives. The subterranean fire last week at the Soma coal mine in western Turkey was the worst mining disaster in the country’s history. Hundreds of hardworking men in the district I represent are dead. And sadly, their deaths could have been prevented.
As early as last September, I had petitioned the Turkish Parliament to create a commission of inquiry, which is one way that the legislature can use its powers to oversee industry in Turkey. Ever since the Soma mine was privatized in 2005, the price of extracting coal has gone down dramatically — and so have safety conditions for workers.
My proposal merely called for research on previous mining accidents in Soma, inspections of the mine, and finding solutions. Along with other members of Parliament, I also urged Turkey to ratify the International Labor Organization’s convention on mine safety; if Turkey had signed the I.L.O. convention, there would have been mandatory alternative exits from the mine that could have saved lives.