A top aide to the Turkish PM, Ysuf Yerkel, has been given a week’s sick leave for “leg trauma” he sustained after kicking a mourner following Turkey’s worst mining disaster in history.
A picture of Yerkel kicking a protester who was being restrained
by two security force members emerged last week following the
official visit of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to the town of
Soma in the wake of the mining disaster on May 13.
The image caused furor on the internet from an enraged public many of whom believed the government
has dealt with the tragedy in an insensitive way.
On the same day as the incident, Yerkel saw a doctor at the
Anakara Ataturk Training and Research Hospital, reported Turkish
news agency Hurriyet, citing a medical report. Yerkel
complained of a pain in his right knee, but told Dr. Servan
Gokhan that it had come about after a fall. The aide was
subsequently diagnosed with soft tissue trauma and granted a week
of medical leave.
“There are 10x10 cm edema, bruises and soft tissue panicula
on the right knee, and bruises and soft tissue swelling on the
left shoulder and front of the chest. The patient has been
diagnosed with soft tissue trauma as there is sensitivity with
leg and arm movements and difficulty with walking,” the
medical report said.
Yerkel claims that he was acting in self-defense, and that the
man whom he kicked had attacked him. He also denounced the
“provocations and insults” he had received and refused
to apologize to his victim.
“I have been deeply saddened by the incident that occurred in
Soma on May 14. I am sorry for being unable to keep calm despite
all of the provocations, insults and attacks I faced on that
day,” said Yerkel, according to Anadolu Agency.
Witness accounts paint a different picture of the event. Hurriyet
reports that Special Forces were interrogating the man after he
kicked a vehicle in the prime minister’s convoy. When Yerkel saw
the scene he reportedly ran over to the man and kicked him three
or four times.
An explosion caused carbon monoxide to inundate a mine in the
Western town of Soma, killing at least 302 people on May 13. In
the wake of the tragedy Prime Minister Erdogan promised “no stone
would be left unturned” in the investigation to ascertain what
caused the disaster.
"Explosions like this in these mines happen all the time.
It's not like these don't happen elsewhere in the world,"
Erdogan told mourners in Soma last week.
His words were met by public anger and mass protests across
Turkey.
Allegations of negligence have been leveled at the owners of the
mine who claimed that they had adhered to safety protocol. On
Monday a Turkish court arrested eight people in connection with
the incident, including Ramazan Dogru, general manager of Soma
Coal Mining Company, and Chief Executive Can Gurkan, the son of
company owner Alp Gurkan.
The last mining accident on this scale in Turkey was recorded in
1992 when a firedamp blast killed 263 in Zonguldak.