Families, miners and officials gathered in the Black Sea town of Amasra on Oct. 14 to mark the fourth anniversary of the coal mine explosion that killed 43 workers in 2022.
Relatives visited the graves of the victims, and a ceremony was held at the shaft of the mine operated by the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises (TTK). Forty-three miners’ helmets were placed in front of a miner statue, and officials laid red carnations beside them.
Bartın Governor Nurtaç Arslan, TTK General Manager Muharrem Kiraz, Hakan Yeşil, chairman of the General Mine Workers’ Union (GMİS), district governor Muhammed Serdar Erdoğan and Amasra Mayor Recai Çakır attended, along with miners and victims’ relatives, according to DHA news agency.
Call for stronger safety
Arslan said the community still deeply felt the absence of the miners and shared the families’ pain. He said such accidents showed the importance of stronger workplace safety measures and expressed hope that similar disasters would not happen again.
What happened in 2022
The explosion occurred on the evening of Oct. 14, 2022, at the minus 320-metre level of the TTK mine in Amasra, a coastal town in Bartın province in northern Türkiye. Officials said at the time that it was caused by firedamp, an explosive methane gas found in coal seams. It was one of the deadliest mining accidents in the country in recent years.
The disaster renewed debate in Türkiye about safety in the mining sector, which has a long record of fatal accidents. The worst was the 2014 fire at a privately run coal mine in Soma, in western Manisa province, which killed 301 workers and led to new legislation on occupational health and safety.
The Amasra blast led to a criminal case against mine officials, while families and unions have pressed for accountability and better inspections. Worker safety organisations continue to report hundreds of workplace deaths each year across sectors in Türkiye, with mining and construction among the most dangerous.
Amasra, known for its Byzantine and Genoese castle and small harbour, is also a popular weekend destination for visitors from Ankara and Istanbul. Coal mining has been central to the economy of the wider Zonguldak-Bartın basin for more than a century.
Sources
Photo: Babbsack / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
