Turkish mine explosion: Are 300 lives enough to make Recep Tayyip Erdogan's admirers think again?
Cutting corners in the drive for cheap coal meant last week's disaster was an accident waiting to happen
Less than three weeks ago, a Turkish opposition MP got up to demand a parliamentary investigation into safety measures at a coal mine in his constituency. "We are sick of going to the funerals of miners," declared Ozgur Ozel, saying he had been inundated with complaints about safety conditions at the pit. Nonsense, replied a deputy from the ruling AK party, claiming that the country's mines were safer than many elsewhere in the world. In words which should come back to haunt the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the AK party deputy added that, "God willing", nothing would happen at the mine, "not even a nosebleed".
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