Soma mining accident report proposals disregarded: CHP deputy

None of the proposals suggested in the report on the Soma mining disaster of May 2014 have been taken into consideration in any laws passed since the tragedy, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Manisa deputy Özgür Özel has said.

"What will those who ignored the reports say to the people when the next disaster happens? If the suggestions of the parliamentary investigation committee's reports been taken into consideration in 2010, the Soma disaster would never have happened. If lessons had been taken from Soma, Ermenek would never have happened either. We are still not taking lessons," said Özel, who was among the 17 deputies to prepare a detailed report on the mining accident in the western Turkish district of Soma in May 2014.

"Another disaster will happen and we will again shed crocodile tears," he added, stressing that 17 deputies from four parties prepared the report by working day and night after inspecting mines across the country.

Turkey was hit by its biggest ever mining accident on May 13, 2014 when a fire broke out inside a mine in the Manisa province's Soma district, resulting in the death of 301 miners. Only six months after the accident in Soma, a mine in the Central Anatolian province of Konya's Ermenek district was flooded by water that had built up in an unused old mining gallery. The bodies of the 18 miners killed in the accident were still being found two months after the accident.

CHP deputy Özel, who had warned of safety conditions in Soma before the disaster there last year, said no steps had been taken since the tragedy to prevent worker deaths.

"Some 50,000 workers are currently working in mines across the country. What happened to our vows after Soma? Since then nothing has been done to...