Families of mineworkers have decided to open an association following the death of eight miners who lost their life during tunneling work at Kozlu colliery of the Turkish Hard Coal Authority (TTK) on 7 January 2013. Families said they will be giving a struggle for the improvement of working conditions of miners.
Mehmet Şeker, father of Ahmet Şeker who was one of the eight miners, said gathered in order to bring the families of eight workers together.
Şeker remarked that the working conditions and difficulties of mineworkers are already known and apparent and added; "The problems and deficiencies in collieries weren't fixed and miners were forced to work under unfavourable conditions although the problems had been ascertained long ago. From now on, we, families of mineworkers, will stand together and demand the improvement of working conditions of miners”.
Çiğdem Arslan, wife of Satılmış Arslan who was one of the eight miners killed in the blast in Kozlu, told that her husband had mentioned about gas entrapment in their work area the week before the incident.”Why did those responsible take no measures against gas entrapment?”, asked Arslan.
We do not want other people to live the pain we have lived. What we want is to not to allow those responsible to be comfortable on their seats, said Yasemin Birkan, sister of Muhsin Akyüz, another victim of the explosion in early January.
Arzu Şeker, wife of another victim Ahmet Şeker, said her husband was working in mining industry to meet their son's school expenses. “The authorities have started to give us firewood and coal after my husband was killed. I will seek my rights for my children to make sure they will not bow to anyone”.
Mehdiye Kadıoğlu, mother of another victim Köksal Kadıoğlu who had been working in mining since 1994, expressed her pain as follows; “My son had to start working in the mining industry as he couldn't find any other work when he returned to his homeland after the 17 August earthquake in 1994. He  survived the Gölcük earthquake but he couldn't survive the mine blast here. This is not how I wanted to see my son”.
According to the report by Dev Maden-Sen affiliated to DISK, 77 mineworkers died and 216 others were wounded in 132 accidents in Turkey in 2012.