301 Mine Workers in Soma, Turkey were brutally killed on May 13, 2014 in a so-called work accident because of the lack of necessary precautions that should have been legally taken by the employers.
The World Federation of Trade Unions, the unique class oriented union movement representing more than 105 million workers in all around the world monitored the consequences and process of this massacre from the first day of the tragedy. The WFTU not only watched the process but also took concrete steps such as organizing an event in Istanbul titled “We will not forgive nor forget the Soma Massacre” in June 2014 in order to be the voice of the decedent mine workers and their families.After this event, acommittee was formed to monitor and interfere in all the developments related to the judicial process.
The final hearing of the Soma Trial was held on June 16, 2021. The court decision has been literally a law scandal. In Turkey, if a person involves in a traffic accident and leads to demise of another person, the actor of such an accidental demise receives 7,5 years of imprisonment. However, the perpetrators of Soma Massacre were unjustly sentenced to imprisonments that are less than 7,5 years. The verdict of the court has once again proved that the fact that the judicial system in Turkey functions for the benefit of the capitalist class.
Here are the statements of Att. TacettinÇolak, a member of the WFTU European Lawyers Committee who has been monitoring the Soma Trials from the very beginning on behalf of the WFTU and Nakliyat-İş Union related to the final hearing of the trial:
“The killers of 301 miners were unfortunately punished on the basis of ‘gross negligence’ today. If the Some Trials had been conducted on the basis of substantial justice, the perpetrators should have been sentenced to imprisonment 301 times, each for one worker killed in Soma Coal Mine. We will determinedly continue our legal struggle until the real perpetrators of Soma Massacre receive the punishments they deserve.”
As stated above, under no circumstances will we forgive or forget the mineworker massacre in Soma committed jointly by the political power, the capitalists and the yellow unionists.
Our fight continues!