Karaman’s Ermenek

Civil servants acted insufficiently in regard to Turkey’s worst-ever mining disaster in Soma on May 13 and should have been probed more thoroughly, Turkey’s official ombudsman said Dec. 30.

The high-ranking civil servants should have resigned before a warning from the government, the report noted.

The Turkish Parliament has finally approved the International Labor Organization (ILO) convention on safety and health in mining, following debates after the recent Soma and Ermenek mining disasters.

Turkey’s energy and natural resources minister has given some heed to insistent calls by opposition lawmakers to resign from his post in the aftermath of several deadly accidents at coal mines, refusing to rule out the possibility.

Saffet Uyar, the owner of a coal mine in Karaman in which 18 miners went missing following an underground flood on Oct. 28, surrendered to the public prosecutor’s office early on Nov. 9.

A mausoleum project prepared for 301 miners who were killed in the country’s deadliest-ever mining accident in May in Soma will be constructed by the end of the year.

Graves for 86 workers who were killed in separate mine accidents in Soma in the past will also be placed in the mausoleum, along with the ones for the 301 miners.

The 18 miners who remain trapped underground after a flood in a Central Anatolian coal mine have not been paid for three months, the father of two of the trapped workers has said.

Three mining companies have been mining without informing each other, Turkey's leading mining association says in a statement on the latest mine disaster, adding that the Energy Ministry did nothing to rectify the matter A mining accident in the Central Anatolian province of Karaman that left 18 workers 375 meters below the ground on Oct.