ECO-TURKEY

Scandals never end at Killer İliç mine

Grieved families: "Our bodies are not for sale. We do not want money, we want the criminals to be punished"

On February 13, 2024, the mountain of cyanide waste in the ANAGOLD gold mine in the İliç district of Erzincan province was activated and covered the entire area, and 9 workers and technicians who were trapped under millions of tons of toxic sludge died horribly.
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Third expert report to save the minister of environment

The first expert report was announced one month after the disaster in which nine workers lost their lives in indescribable pain. The second expert report, prepared upon the request of the İliç Public Prosecutor's Office, determined the secondary and primary culprits with a more comprehensive and detailed analysis. The report found 13 people, including Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change Murat Kurum, to be primarily culpable and 26 people to be secondary culpable. According to this report, Minister Kurum should have been tried along with the company executives.

However, while the prosecutor's office was still preparing the indictment, an important development occurred: News came in September that a new committee had been formed for a third expert report. In fact, the newly formed expert committee had only one mission: to save Minister Kurum.

A photo of the cracks that   formed in the soil before   the disaster has emerged

The third report, prepared at lightning speed, indicated that a causal relationship could not be established between the landslide and Murat Kurum's action, and therefore he could not be considered primarily at fault. Based on this, the prosecutor's office ruled that "no prosecution" should be filed against the Minister of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change and the ministry officials whose approval and wet signature were on the 2021 EIA (environmental impact assessment) report."

Conditional compensation for work-related death victims

In the meantime, it was revealed that the company offered money to the grieving families as compensation in exchange for a confidentiality agreement. The agreement included statements that would affect the litigation process, in other words, the families were asked to undertake not to be plaintiffs in the litigation processes. However, the families of the crusher supervisor Ramazan Çimen and truck driver Uğur Yıldız, who died under piles of cyanide-laced mud, refused to sign this immoral contract and ruined ANAGOLD's game.

Uğur Yıldız's grieving wife Gamze Yıldız says, "The offer was to take the money and be quiet. We did not accept. Our body is not for sale. We will pursue our rights through the law. Whoever is guilty should be punished." She demands that the real culprits be revealed, that the disaster should not be covered up as an ordinary incident, and opposes the fact that Murat Kurum was found blameless by the third expert report.

ANAGOLD is preparing to reopen its cyanide-laced mine

ANAGOLD İliç mine stopped operating after this great industrial murder in history. The 2021 EIA report was canceled by the court and its licenses were canceled by the Ministry.

In August, ANAGOLD's main partner, Canada-based SSR Mining, stated that they were in contact with the ministry. A new EIA application was being prepared for the mine to be able to reopen.

Thereupon, the Chamber of Mining Engineers emphasized that none of this company's requests should be taken into consideration and all of its licenses should be canceled and it should not be allowed to operate in the country.

Despite all the public reaction, the company applied to the İliç Municipality in November. It requested approval to expand its area of activity by 70 percent. The location of the area to be expanded showed that the aim was to reopen the İliç mine. The request was rejected by the municipal council.

(Source: Kısa Dalga December 25, sendika.org October 28)