Expert finds Turkey's state-owned coal enterprise 100 pct at fault in deaths of 46 miners

Duvar English

According to the expert report on the explosion that killed 43 miners at the Turkish Hard Coal Corporation's (TTK) plant in Amasra district of Bartın province, the state owned enterprise is 100 percent at fault.

The main opposition Republican Peope’s Party (CHP) Zonguldak Deputy Deniz Yavuzyılmaz shared the report submitted to the case filed against TTK by the family of Aziz Köse, one of the miners who lost his life in the explosion that occurred in October 2022.

In the report sent by the expert panel to the 2nd Labor Court of Zonguldak, the experts stated that the "General Directorate of TTK is 100 percent at fault for the occurrence of the accident” due to 9 enumerated negligence points. The report also mentioned that there was “no factor of inevitability in the formation of the accident.”

Among the reasons for the cooperation’s fault were cited inadequate and ineffective ventilation systems in the mine, the inability to prevent methane accumulations, and insufficient measures in combating coal dust. 

The report also stated that the inspectors had already gave necessary warnings about the aforementioned problems before the explosion without any sanctions.

In the main lawsuit filed in connection with the explosion at the mine, 23 defendants, eight of whom are arrested, are on trial. Four of the arrested defendants are facing up to 1080 years in prison, and the other defendants are facing up to 18 years in prison

TTK General Director Kazım Eroğlu has a long record of mine explosions. Before becoming the general director, Eroğlu was the Director of the Kozlu Plant in Zonguldak. On January 7, 2013, Eroğlu was sentenced to three years and four months in prison for "causing death by negligence" in the case related to the explosion that killed eight miners in the mine in Kozlu.

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