(Photo by Mustafa Karaman via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0 DEED)
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In recent weeks, mining workers across Türkiye have staged protests demanding unpaid wages and fighting back against worsening working conditions. Workers at the Özşen Madencilik coal mine in the western Edirne province ended a 27-day underground protest and hunger strike after securing an agreement over unpaid wages, severance claims, unpaid overtime, and unjust dismissals.
In the northwestern district of Eskişehir, workers at the Doruk Madencilik mine secured a formal agreement for the payment of their long-overdue wages and benefits, but only after a prolonged struggle and many broken promises. This latest deal represents the fourth agreement between the workers and the company, as the mining company had systematically failed to honour the three previous protocols.
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Join the Sphere →Earlier in April, more than 100 Doruk workers marched 200 kilometres from Eskişehir to Türkiye’s capital, Ankara, where they staged a hunger strike outside the Energy Ministry demanding restitution for their five months of unpaid work. Police violently detained 110 of the mining workers during the protest.
“In this country, workers don’t count, only money matters,” mining union chief Gokay Cakir told the striking miners during the protest. Indeed, resource extraction has consistently come at the expense of mining workers’ livelihoods and proper oversight. State neglect and weak regulations have repeatedly exposed workers to dangerous and sometimes deadly conditions.
History of Unsafe Working Conditions for Mining Workers
Türkiye has a long history of mining disasters and unsafe working conditions for miners. Fatal accidents and preventable disasters recur with alarming frequency. Workers often lose their lives because company management does not comply with basic safety measures.
In 2014, 301 mining workers lost their lives due to carbon monoxide poisoning in a mine disaster in the western town of Soma. It is the biggest workplace disaster in Turkish history. Nearly every family in nearby towns and villages lost someone in the tragedy. The disaster revealed major safety failures in the mine, including the absence of carbon monoxide detectors and inadequate ventilation. Just several months earlier, workers had already protested unsafe conditions at the site, but the operating mine company, Soma Eynez, had ignored clear warning signs of dangerous gas levels.
(Photo by Mustafa Karaman via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0 DEED)
The mining company faced minimal consequences and made no viable improvements to its safety practices after the disaster. Instead, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan openly defended the company, which has close political and economic ties with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. Just this March, an appeals court ruled that cases against public officials over the disaster must be dropped due to the statute of limitations, effectively ending any accountability.
Before the Soma mine disaster, 1,308 fatal mine accidents occurred in Turkiye since 2000. Gas explosions, mine collapses, carbon-monoxide poisoning, and suffocation are the main causes of fatalities. Workplace conditions have only worsened since the AKP government began privatizing mines in 2004. Labour unions have long criticized private mining companies for putting profits first and failing to invest in worker safety, exposing workers to unnecessary risks.
Impunity in the Name of “Fate” and “Destiny”
Following a mine explosion that killed 41 workers in the northern province of Bartin in 2022, Erdoğan called it “destiny,” adding, “[t]hese [kinds of accidents] will always happen. We need to know that.” In other words, suggesting the mining disaster was merely an incident that could neither have been predicted nor prevented. The comment angered many as it removed any kind of blame or accountability to the officials who allowed the disaster to happen in the first place.
As jailed Kurdish political leader Selahattin Demirtaş commented after the disaster, “In England and Germany, mine workers cannot reach the level of ‘martyrdom’, like Erdoğan praises, because there are no officials there who put the blame on fate […] Worker massacres are deliberate killings for the sake of greater profit.”
This tragedy, along with previous mining disasters in Türkiye, has highlighted the growing impunity of mining companies and the AKP government’s hidden support of their actions. In the eyes of the government and companies, workers’ lives are seen as disposable and expendable. However, the very workers the government fails to protect are the ones whom people depend on in moments of crisis.
Miners on the Frontlines of Earthquake Rescues
Familiar with working through rough terrain, mining workers are often the first to volunteer in natural disaster relief, especially in earthquake search and rescue efforts.
After the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes struck Türkiye and Syria on February 6, 2023, more than 10,000 mining workers rushed to earthquake zones to help with search and rescue efforts. 600 mining workers from the coastal city of Zonguldak, nearly 1,000km north of the earthquake zone, put their work on hold and became some of the first responders on the ground.
(Photo by Voices of America via Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)
“No strangers to disasters,” many drew on their experience with frequent mining accidents, rescue work, and volunteered on their own, rather than as part of a government-directed rescue mission. As miner Turgay Açıkgöz told France 24, “We know what this pain feels like, since we have tasted this pain before.”
Most of the victims of the earthquake did not die from the earthquake itself, but died from being trapped under debris for days. The real fatality from the earthquake was the inaction of the AKP government. It took days to dispatch help into the earthquake zones and save those trapped. Even the hardest-hit areas did not receive any aid until the third day, which led to the deaths of thousands of people. Instead, miners and survivors led initial rescue efforts.
Survivors mentioned that many government aid teams walked away from sites deemed too dangerous, despite hearing sounds from survivors. However, because of their specific expertise in shored tunnelling and digging through confined debris, miners successfully reached and rescued survivors in areas where other aid teams could not.
Miners also took part in previous earthquake rescue efforts during the İzmir Earthquake in October 2020, the Van-Erciş Earthquake in October 2011, and the İzmit Earthquake in August 1999.
Government Negligence Leaves Miners Exposed
In return, the government has endangered miners directly by allowing mining operations to proceed in earthquake-prone zones. Several mines sit atop active fault lines. Despite clear geotechnical warnings, officials continue to prioritize expansionist economic goals over stringent risk management.
This became especially visible in February 2024, when a massive collapse at the Çöpler gold mine in Erzincan in Eastern Türkiye buried nine miners alive. Government authorities allowed the company to expand its operations without building the necessary infrastructure needed to safely support increased capacity. The mine also continued operating despite previous incidents, including a cyanide spill in 2022 and earlier landslides.
In Erzincan, where the active Ovacık-Munzur fault line runs beneath the mine, experts have long warned that an earthquake above magnitude 7 could catastrophically endanger both workers and the surrounding environment. Scrutiny intensified last year when Türkiye’s state-run mining authority, the General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration (MTA), removed the fault line segment passing directly under the collapsed Çöpler Gold Mine from an official map. Essentially, making it harder to prove in court that the government knowingly permitted a high-risk project in a seismically dangerous location, and weakens lawsuits related to safety and negligence.
Despite mounting concerns, the AKP government has made it clear that the country will remain open to mining investment.
Foreign Interests and the Exploitation of Türkiye’s Mining Industry
The Çöpler gold mine in Erzincan is one of many mining companies operated by foreign partners. Anagold Madencilik—a joint venture between Canadian-based SSR Mining and its Turkish partner Lidya Madencilik—operates the mine.
The Investment and Finance Office of the Presidency of Türkiye is encouraging foreign investments in the mining sector with “lucrative government incentives”, boasting that Türkiye has “649 international mining companies, up from only 138 in 2004.” Türkiye has attracted many multinational mining companies around the world, especially from Canada, but has, in return, wreaked havoc on the health of mining workers and nearby communities.
As mentioned above, the SSR Mining company, based in Vancouver, Canada, is responsible for the collapse of the Çöpler gold mine in Erzincan, as well as for cyanide waste spilling into nature. Canada lacks strict extraterritorial laws regulating the global environmental and human rights conduct of its mining corporations. This allows operators to take advantage of countries like Türkiye with weaker government oversight.
In Fatsa, a district in Türkiye’s Black Sea region, residents and mining workers near the Altıntepe gold mine have also reported environmental damage to their village and deteriorating health conditions linked to contaminated water. The mine operates as a joint venture between the Turkish company Bahar Madencilik and the U.K.-based company Stratex International PLC.
Many former Altıntepe mining workers developed cancer after cyanide exposure on the job; former worker Murat Taşkır was diagnosed with sarcoma cancer less than two years after starting. He told Jacobin that the company failed to disclose cyanide risks and provide safety equipment. Although the company has offered some compensation to families to prevent them from going public, Taşkır decided to sue the mine to “show workers that they shouldn’t be scared to seek justice.”
Convenient Lifesavers, Convenient Enemies of the Government
Despite risking their lives to save others after natural disasters, mining workers are frequently labeled as enemies of the government when they organize to demand fair wages and safer working conditions. The AKP government has used various strategies to discredit miner protests, including accusing mining workers of trying to weaken Türkiye’s economic development or being associated with “terrorist” organizations.
Both government authorities and mining companies will go to extreme lengths to protect their economic interests. Excessive force is frequently used against protestors, as seen during the recent protest at the Özşen Madencilik mine. Associates of the mine’s boss opened fire on miners and their families three times.
In a statement after the attacks, trade unionist and organizing specialist for Bağımsız Maden-İş (Independent Mining Workers’ Union), Başaran Aksu, wrote, “[t]his attack was not only directed at Özem Maden workers, their families, and children, but at the entire working class. Let those who rob workers of their hard-earned wages and send weapons and gangs against families demanding their rights know this: resistance will grow, these workers will win, and all of Türkiye will see it.”
The recent protests against the Doruk Madencilik and Özşen Madencilik coal mines are attracting increasing support from the general public. Ultimately, the protests show that mining workers’ demands cannot be ignored simply by pressure or delay.
Edited by Faroq Mohafez
