MHP’s Bahçeli accuses critics of exploiting mine blast for political gains

ANKARA

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has criticized some politicians’ comments over the mine blast in northern Türkiye, which claimed the lives of 41 workers, for using “calamities” as political agenda for confrontation.

Anything that could be evaluated as fault, negligence and deficiency that caused the explosion in the mine in the Amasra district of Bartın province will be revealed, Bahçeli said, addressing his party members at the parliament.

“We will follow this issue until the end,” he added.

“However, anyone who rubs hands to add political content to the calamity by using the explosion in the mine as an excuse will not be seen as well-intentioned in our opinion,” he stated.

If the perpetrators of the incident are identified, they will be held accountable in terms of judicial and administrative aspects, the MHP leader said.

Bahçeli did not name the opposition politicians but criticized them for citing the 2017 and 2019 reports of the Court of Accounts related to the Amasra Establishment Directorate and “seeking the guilty and responsible” to be investigated.

“It is said that the aforementioned Court of Accounts reports drew attention to the risks caused by excavation even at minus 300 meters,” Bahçeli said.

Bahçeli also said it was not rational to argue that the engineers and managers of the Amasra mine knew what to do and what precautions to take.

“Of course, we do not deny the value of the Court of Accounts reports, the findings and proposals in their content. However, we find it extremely objectionable that the reports of the Court of Accounts are transformed into political agenda by malicious people,” Bahçeli stated.