Opposition leader blasts Erdogan over “fate” remarks after mining disaster

Meral Aksener, the leader of the Turkish opposition Good Party (IYIP) slammed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for referring to “fate” after the mine explosion that claimed 41 lives in Northern Bartin on Friday evening.

“Not taking any precautions and not fulfilling responsibilities but referring the incident to fate, is immorality,” Aksener said in her party’s parliamentary group meeting on Wednesday, Diken news website reported.

“If you do not take precautions despite all warnings and deliberately overlook death, we cannot say it a disaster, it thus becomes a murder, a massacre,” she said.

Forty-one 41 workers died as a result of a firedamp explosion at the state-owned TTK (Turkiye Taskomuru Kurumu) coal mine on Friday in Amasra district of Northern Bartin province. Erdogan who paid a visit to the explosion site on Saturday, put the blame of the explosion on “fate”.

“We believe in the plan of the fate. There is no yesterday, today or tomorrow. These things will always happen," Erdogan said, prompting heavy criticism from opposition circles.

“As a result of our studies, we saw that the coming disaster was predictable, as in many previous ones. The inspectors have issued warnings regarding the danger many times apparently, and they even fined the company. But the officials appointed by Mr. Erdogan did not move a finger. They watched it coming,” Aksener said.