Foreign

Opposition Stuns Erdogan with Historic Victory in Local Elections

By Web News 877

Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP) has claimed big election victories in the main cities of Istanbul and Ankara.

The results are a significant blow for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had hoped to regain control of the cities less than a year after he claimed a third term as president.

He led the campaign to win in Istanbul, where he grew up and became mayor but Ekrem Imamoglu, who first won the city in 2019, scored a second victory for the secular opposition CHP.

Mr Erdogan had vowed a new era in Turkey’s megacity of almost 16 million people.

Still, the incumbent mayor of Istanbul secured more than 50% of the vote, defeating the president’s AK Party candidate by more than 11 points and almost one million votes.

This was also the first time since Mr Erdogan came to power 21 years ago that his party was defeated across the country at the ballot box.

In the capital Ankara, opposition mayor Mansur Yavas was so far ahead of his rival by 60% that he declared victory when less than half the votes were in.

Significantly, the CHP also seized control of Turkey’s fourth-biggest city Bursa and Balikesir in the north-west, and retained control of Izmir, Adana and the resort of Antalya.

President Erdogan, 70, acknowledged the election had not gone as he had hoped, but he told supporters in Ankara it would mark “not an end for us but rather a turning point”.

BBC/Maxwell Oyekunle

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Foreign

Mine Blast Leaves 28 Dead, Many Trapped in Turkey

By Web News 492

Forty people are now thought to have died following an explosion in a coal mine in northern Turkey, the country’s interior minister says,

Suleyman Soylu earlier said 58 people had been rescued from the mine and over a dozen remained trapped.

Around 110 people were in the mine at the time of the blast on Friday, almost half of them at over 300 metres deep.

Emergency crews worked through the night, digging through rocks to try to reach more survivors.

Video footage shows miners emerging blackened and bleary-eyed accompanied by rescuers at the facility in Amasra, on the Black Sea coast.

The family and friends of the missing could also be seen at the mine, anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones.

“Fifty-eight of our miners were able to come out unharmed. We estimate that 15 of our miners are [trapped] below and we are trying to rescue them,” Mr Soylu told reporters at the scene.

The explosion is believed to have occurred at around 300m deep. Some 49 people had been working in the “risky” zone between 300 and 350m (985 to 1,150ft) underground, Mr Soylu said.

The cause of the blast is not yet known, and the local prosecutor’s office has begun an investigation.

Turkey’s energy minister said there were initial indications that the blast was caused by firedamp, which is methane forming an explosive mixture in coal mines.

“We are facing a truly regretful situation”, he said.

There were partial collapses inside the mine, he said, adding that there were no ongoing fires, and that ventilation was working properly.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit the site on Saturday.

Amasra’s mayor Recai Cakir said many of those who survived had suffered “serious injuries”.

One worker who managed to escape on his own said: “There was dust and smoke and we don’t know exactly what happened.”

The mine belongs to the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprises.

Turkey witnessed its deadliest coal mining disaster in 2014, when 301 people died after a blast in the western town of Soma.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon