Despite the cave-ins, despite the environmental damage, does anyone really inspect the gold mines?

I think the minister should go to the region and drink tea brewed with water taken from the cyanide pool!

Yes, he should definitely do that. That's what the minister of the time did years ago when Chernobyl exploded. 

He said, "Look, there is no radiation in the tea, I can drink it with peace of mind" and slurped the tea.

Our dear people then continued to drink tea with peace of mind. The tea sector was saved.

For a while, we had a veteran journalist who saved the chicken sector, there was bird flu or something in the chickens, and our honorable state gave our veteran journalist a task.

***

Look, I don't know if he got cancer or something and passed away, I don't know if our minister who was slurping radiated tea at the time, may his soul rest in peace, he was actually a good person. 

But at that time, radiation was carried by clouds and rains to our Black Sea region, and I think a cow gave birth to a double-headed calf in the region after a while.

Chernobyl was a catastrophic accident, the radiation even affected our people living on the Black Sea coast, I know that cancer cases increased in the region. Ukraine was already under the influence of radiation for years.

In Moscow, though, potatoes from Ukraine used to be very popular, they used to be big, big potatoes. Not the size of a fist or anything like that, much bigger. I don't know if the soil was so fertile in Ukraine that they had such big potatoes, or if Chernobyl and radiation had some effect. But I do know that they were delicious.

Nowadays, due to the war, it is not possible to find Ukrainian potatoes in the markets.

Kiev cake is also not sold as much as it used to be.

In our construction world, Ukrainian granite is known as radiation granite, employers absolutely do not want Ukrainian granite. Granite traders try to pass off Ukrainian granite as African granite.

***

I think there was a landslide because the huge cyanide pool built for the gold mine in the İliç district of Erzincan softened the soil and nine workers were trapped under the landslide. 

Cyanide is as harmful as radiation, it kills people with a drop. But if you are operating a gold mine, and if you are using an open pit mining technique, there is no cheaper way to separate the gold from the soil. You use cyanide!

There are other methods of gold mining, but most of them are very expensive and cost a lot of money. That's why the big gold producers generally prefer the open mine technique.

It's very damaging to the environment, but if the people in the region don't mind, and if you can somehow tie up the rulers in the country, then open gold mining is the best method.

***

They say it was the pulp of the excavated soil that caused that landslide. You know how fruits have pulp when you squeeze them? In gold mines, they wash the excavated soil with cyanide to separate out the gold and pile the rest somewhere.

The waste soil that is piled up is a cyanide-soaked and wet soil, and it is called rust.

If you don't pile it with the right slope, and if you don't take measures to drain the wetness inside, it will flow in the form of landslides in the slightest rain. Just like the liquefaction effect of sandy soils in earthquakes, the pulp liquefies. If the slope is steep, when it receives rain, it landslides and flows.

I don't know if rescue efforts will work, the soil was sliding very badly in the video I saw. It was flowing like a river.

Let's hope for the best.

By the way, there are rumors that there are more than nine people missing, but we have no choice but to believe the official statements.

In the meantime, it is rumored that one of the cyanide pipes exploded and softened the rust, just like in 2022, and if this is true, the situation is really grave. 

Of course, no one knows the truth of the matter, our age is the age of perception rather than truth, those who can control perception can direct people as they wish.

Maybe they will write the truth in the report to be written at the end of this accident. There is no hope from God in this matter. Maybe they will write the truth.

***

Naturally, opposition MPs and so on went to the region and started frothing the issue.

There was a stream flowing from the pool into the Euphrates, a cyanide stream, environmental pollution, it was said that cyanide would poison the environment all the way to the Middle East.

The Ministry of Environment says that the necessary precautions have been taken, the lids have been closed, etc. 

One does not know who to believe.

There are even those who say that cyanide will get into the air and poison people. Whether it reacts chemically with water and becomes hydro cyanide or whatever, it is said that this gas spreads very fast in the air. It's as if that cyanide pool had never been there all these years, and they keep blowing the whistle.

I guess the opposition MPs wanted to hit the government while they had the chance. 

Such an opportunity will never come again before the elections!

Let's exaggerate it as much as possible. Let's scare people!

When opposition MPs get involved, the perception actually backfires. Even though what they say is true up to a point, people in the neighborhood don't believe it.

***

And did this gold mine open just yesterday? 

Of course not. 

It has been so long since the mine was opened that our last prime minister, Mr. Binali Yıldırım, convinced people that we would open gold mines here, that we would create job opportunities for you, and he accused those who objected that such things could not happen on a fault line that you are against the development of the country's economy, that you are always being reluctant.

Our previous Minister of Environment and Urbanization, Mr. Murat Kurum, who is now a candidate for the big city of Istanbul, extended the permits to the company so that they could damage a larger area.

The result is a cyanide pipe that burst last time, a rust landslide this time, and nine lives, probably not saved this time.

It is not even clear what concessions were made in return for the main company, which is unclear whether it is Canadian or American.

There is also a junior partner, but we don't even need to mention his name, because it is clear from the start for whom he was made a partner.

Aside from the environmental damage caused by the foreign company, at most 5% of the gold mined goes back to the country. 

In other words, this agreement does not make a significant contribution to the economy.

So why are such companies allowed to operate?

Isn't the reason obvious? 

The country is being plundered, who knows who lined their pockets while those permits were issued.

Even the people of the region do not raise their voices against all the plunder because they want to earn a few cents.

The foreign company creates employment for the villagers in the region!

Don't play with my bread!

But look, there goes your life!

It's my life, what's it to you?

The people of Erzincan, just like Erzurum, always prefer this government.

Do I have any objection to this?

No, everyone is free to choose what they want.

As someone who started primary school in Erzurum, and as someone who had the honor of being in Erzincan for a few months after the earthquake, I love that region.

I just miss eating trout by the stream and breathing fresh air at the waterfall in Erzincan.

I feel sad when I hear that they are destroying the environment, what can I say? 

***

Is the gold mine very harmful to the environment?

Of course it is, if you want to take a picture from the air, with a drone or something. I call them drones, but I call them buzzers. 

Take a picture with a drone and let's see what it has become.

As far as I know, the area is not very forested, even if you take a picture of it from above, if people start getting cancer tomorrow, then the extent of the disaster will be understood.

Does cyanide cause cancer?

I don't know, maybe it does. At least I know that the gas is harmful to the lungs. As far as I know, cyanide poisons the blood.

One way or another, it will be revealed after a while.

By then, the horse will have passed Üsküdar.

This is what financing politics is like, it's done on the sly, by walking on the snow and not showing your tracks.

They are selling the country!

Who cares?

Tell me about the money! 

How much commission did they pay to open this mine here? Can anyone find the answer to that question?

Have a good day's work, Selami, that's what suits you.

Love and respect to everyone from Moscow