Turkey and the tunnel of time


By Nikos Konstandaras

The images from Turkey in recent days have shown how much the country has changed. The explosion and underground fire at a coal mine in the town of Soma in western Turkey, where the number of dead reached 282 yesterday and another 100 are still missing, is the worst such accident the country has recorded. Until last Tuesday, the worst occurred in March 1992, when 263 miners were killed in an explosion at Kozlu, on the Black Sea coast. Then, as now, worried relatives gathered at the mine, and anxiety quickly turned to grief and rage. Today, dynamic protests and strikes have sprung up across the country, and two days ago the prime minister came under withering attack from relatives who accuse him of supporting his crony mine-owning friends at the expense of workers’ safety. In 1992, the miners’ relatives were alone and torn between the pain of their loss and the knowledge that if the mines closed the region would sink into poverty.

From 1992 I remember the cries of families, when they learned that the mine would be sealed with cement while many miners were still underground, because it was the only way to stifle the fire. Desperate relatives clashed with police a short distance from the shaft that would be closed with their sons, fathers and husbands inside. I remember bodies, under blankets. Tears had dug channels through the black dust on faces of silent men who had carried only dead colleagues into the winter light. I remember the grief and apprehension on the face of the main opposition party leader when he looked over at the relatives before getting into his limousine – I remember how shiny his black shoes were, like his hair.

I visited a mountain village lost in the clouds, submerged in grief, snow and mud...

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