He was going to make YTL 35 a day and earn a living for his family a long way from home. The price of being so far from home was heavy, and not being able to see his 3-year-old daughter, Hatice, was a part of this. He saw her only during his annual leave, six times in all. And he saw his 3-month-old son, İsmail, only once. He will not be able to see them anymore because he lost his life in an accident last Saturday in the shipyard where he was working. Now, little Hatice and baby İsmail will always be deprived of their father's warmth, which they had only briefly tasted from afar.This is the story of 31-year-old Murat Çalışkan, a father obliged to leave his home in search of better livelihood for his family. He was also a husband, a son and a brother. In other words, it is the story of the 96th casualty at the shipyards, which employ people under unsafe conditions; the 59th casualty there in the last eight years; the 10th casualty in the last five months; and one of the two shipyard workers who died last Saturday.
This is also the story of how little value is placed on human life in Turkey, as well as the story of those employed like slaves, at very low wages, without sufficient safety measures and without training. On the other hand, this is the story of a government's inability to secure its citizens' right to life -- inability to the extent that there's no difference to be found between this and complicity in murder.
Çalışkan's story is not the whole story, however. Although the tragedy in the shipyards has risen to public notice with media reports on the workers who have been killed, it is far graver than it appears. In addition to the fatalities, accidents that completely incapacitate hundreds of lives are innumerous. The fact that 146 accidents occurred in 2005 alone, 170 in 2006 and the rise of this number to 227 in 2007 is probably enough to convey what I want to tell you.
The rosy picture that obscures the bitterness of reality is actually very bright: The decision of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to ban single-hull ships from sea traffic beginning in 2015 has turned Turkey into a shipbuilding base, the world's fourth-largest after Japan, South Korea and China. The Tuzla Shipyard Zone, which has today become a graveyard because of the recent deaths, has profited greatly from this growth. The shipyards in Tuzla are completely tied up until 2010 with orders, and they are working at full capacity. What used to be a simple shipbuilding zone with 5,000 workers currently employs 28,000 people. However, the successive fatal accidents are casting shadows over this rosy picture of Tuzla, blackening it with real statistics.
The amount of money earned over ruined lives must be satisfying because every day a new shipyard that disregards work safety is opened. The 37 shipbuilders in 2002 have now mushroomed to 84. What attracts our attention is the parallel rise in the number of deaths and the increase in shipyards. In this case, one hesitates to be happy to hear that the number of shipyards will be 140 by 2013, wondering whether concern for the lives of the people who will work there is called for instead.
What is really agonizing is that officials still haven't taken any tangible steps apart from making statements. While the owners of the shipyards bury themselves in silence in the face of the murder-like deaths, all the questions that have been raised by the public await answers, with the political will failing to satisfactorily address the matter. A statement by Faruk Çelik, the minister of labor and social security, saying that "as the ministry, we have done everything within our responsibility and power" is far from credible. These words are of as little solace to Hatice and İsmail and consolation to Çalışkan's family as they are to the public.
In this case, we have the right to ask the minister what purpose the government that he works for serves, particularly after he said, "If there are 50 shipyards in a space made for only 20, and if this is permitted to go on, such pain will continue to be suffered by people in that chaotic place." Now that is clearly a problem -- one the minister himself admits -- but who else can be expected to solve this deadly problem?
Is it possible to disagree with Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Mehmet Sevigen, who demanded that Çelik resign as the relevant minister of a government that has been displaying an utterly fatal helplessness in the face of this problem? In a letter sent to the minister, Sevigen emphasized that the current situation at the shipyards is one that evokes memories of times past that were marked by slavery and exploitation.
"Turkey and our workers are deemed deserving of primitive working conditions seen only in underdeveloped countries. While pointing to EU countries when it is your political interests in question, you think ILO [the UN's International Labour Organization] standards are just too much when it comes to workers," he writes.
Is he not right?
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