CHP's Yavuzyılmaz: Murat Kurum, the primary culprit in the İliç disaster, must be heard

Academics from Hacettepe and Dokuz Eylül universities gave presentations at the 12th meeting of the Turkish Parliament's İliç Accident Investigation Commission. CHP Deputy Chairman Deniz Yavuzyılmaz recalled that Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum had granted an "EIA positive" decision for the company's capacity increase in 2021, and demanded that officials from the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change be heard by the commission as they were found to be "primary culprits" following the disaster.

Yavuzyılmaz, who submitted a petition regarding his request to the commission, also requested that the families of the 9 workers who lost their lives in the mining disaster be heard. AKP and MHP members of the commission reacted to Yavuzyılmaz's request by saying, "Don't put on a political show."

Yavuzyılmaz replied, "Putting on a show is reappointing Murat Kurum as Minister of Environment." AKP and MHP deputies responded by asking, "Are we going to ask you?"

Yavuzyılmaz asked the deputies, "Murat Kurum needs to be called. Why don't you ask the same question? Why don't you have the same concern? Do you have any concerns about whether the Environment Minister of that period comes here or not?"

ACADEMICS HEARD

At the meeting, presentations were made by Prof. Dr. Okay Aksoy from the Dokuz Eylül University Mining Engineering Department, Prof. Dr. Görkem Akıncı from the Environmental Engineering Department, Prof. Dr. Celalettin Şimşek from the Torbalı Vocational School Construction Department, and Prof. Dr. Güzin Gülsev Uyar Aksoy from the Hacettepe University Mining Engineering Department.

Prof. Dr. Güzin Gülsev Uyar Aksoy stated that electronic ignition systems have been used in mine blasting worldwide since 1980. Expressing that non-electric ignition systems are still used in Turkey, Aksoy emphasized that a regulation should be made regarding this. Aksoy said, "We must urgently abandon old-style ignition systems in mines and switch to new-generation ignition systems."

Prof. Dr. Celalettin Şimşek said that comprehensive studies were conducted in EIA reports, but there were supervisory problems in the mines.

"I THINK THE CAUSE OF THE ACCIDENT IS HERE"

Prof. Dr. Okay Aksoy said that such accidents will continue to happen as long as the truth is not spoken. Emphasizing that these accidents would not happen if better education were provided at universities, Aksoy stated that most academics in the mining engineering departments of universities have little field experience.

Noting that the expert report prepared regarding the accident in İliç described the event as a "landslide," but that it was actually a flow, Aksoy spoke as follows:

"I want to draw attention to a point in the expert report. There is a difference of minus 3 million 400 thousand cubic meters between the design value of the solution returning from the heap and the actual value of the solution returning from the heap until May 2022. Whatever happens after this date, this value changes slowly, and at the time of the accident, it rises to 1 million 150 thousand cubic meters. The difference between what enters and what exits in the solution regime changes aggressively. I think the cause of the accident is here."

"WE NEED TO CREATE A MOISTURE MAP OF THE LEACHING AREAS"

Making suggestions to prevent similar mining accidents, Aksoy requested that education programs and academic staff in earth sciences be reviewed. Aksoy made the following suggestions:

"A separate ministry should be established for the mining sector. A mining safety institution should be established. In regions where mining is carried out, the governing law in lawsuits is mining law, but we cannot apply this. Despite mining law being the governing law due to environmental factors, we apply forest law and agricultural law. This draws the energy of mining towards this. The miner moves away from their main job, which is safe production. We need to create a moisture map of the leaching areas. This is a cost, but it is not something visible when the cost that will arise after an accident is considered."

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