Will Turkey ever learn something?

The day that was supposed to be celebrated as Turkey’s “Republic Day,” Oct. 29, was rather a time of mourning this time. Because Turkey had yet another horrific mine accident. In the south-central Anatolian province of Karaman, near the town of Ermenek, 18 miners suddenly got buried under hundreds of tons of water. As I was writing this piece, they were still considered as “trapped underground,” but few hoped they would reach the surface alive.

How did this disaster happen? As some experts argued, one of the abandoned branches of the mine was gradually filed with rain and other sources of water. As the new vein in the mine approached this invisible sink, the water cascaded through and flooded the whole facility. It was a man-made disaster caused by the administrators’ stupidity, negligence, and perhaps also ruthlessness toward those who they sent underground.

But what about the political authority that is supposed to oversee all mines and check their safety? Turkish Labor Minister Faruk Çelik visited the mine after the disaster, and said: “This mine should not have gotten a license… I think such [unsafe] mines should be shut down.” As if it was me or you who would take the mines’ license back or shut them down!

To be fair, Çelik also admitted the underlying problem. “Whenever we attempt to close a mine, the employer brings in 50 people to mediate,” he said. Those people who “mediate,” apparently, were those in power whom the owner of the mine could call and ask for help. The media defined this as “local nepotism.” It could also be called a corrupt, unprincipled, primitive state system.

This state – and the society that generates it – unfortunately takes very little lesson from all the pains...