Turkey bids farewell to miners killed in Ermenek mine flooding

KARAMAN

The last five miners retrieved from the Ermenek mine were laid to rest on Dec. 5. AA Photo

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said safe rooms should be compulsory in mines and subcontracting must end in Turkey’s mining sector, as he attended the Dec. 5 funerals of five miners who died after being trapped in a coal mine in the Central Anatolian town of Ermenek.

“Trapped miners were recovered from underground alive after many days in Chile. That means safe rooms are very important for mines. If we had them, then none of these miners would be dead today,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, speaking with locals at a café in Ermenek, Karaman province, after attending the funerals.

“We want to end subcontracting in the mining sector. We want active unions in the mines. We want safe rooms inside the mines,” he added.

The CHP also visited the families of the miners who were killed in the flooded mine.

Eighteen miners were trapped inside the galleries of the Central Anatolian facility after an underground flood, drawing the country’s focus back to the perilous safety conditions of mine workers six months after the disaster at a coal mine in Soma, which claimed 301 victims.

Initial autopsies on the bodies of 10 of the miners in Ermenek revealed they died of coal gas poisoning, rather than drowning.

According to the details of the initial expert report, eight of the miners, who were huddled around each other when they were found dead on the 22nd day of the rescue efforts, had climbed a wall and waited there for 15 hours for help before succumbing to the poisoning.