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Zonguldak and Coal History

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Zonguldak, The City That Created Its Culture In The Geography Where It Was Founded

As a natural process, precipitation, flood, landslide, etc. In our world, which is constantly changing with external factors and internal factors such as continental movements, volcanoes and faults, the word geography is used to describe any region or country in terms of physical, economic, biological, humanitarian and political aspects. Local geography is one of the most important factors in the formation of "urban identity" and "natural local identity". This situation; While changing their place due to continental movements, coal seams are deposited in stream environments that sometimes remain under the sea and sometimes above water, and developed in terrestrial conditions in the upper carboniferous period. It is also valid for the geography of the Northwest Anatolian Hard Coal Basin, where the processes of Later, the Pontides, a branch of the Alpine-Himalayan mountain system, passed through this geography and today's complex topographic view was formed.

On the beaches, trade, shipbuilding and fishing; In villages and towns, agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry are practiced in the region, where a quiet life is lived, and with the discovery of coal, it has become a center of attraction for domestic and foreign capital. With the participation of the cultures brought by foreign and local people from abroad, old and new lifestyles were blended, and a new local identity and life culture was formed, in which mining was at its core.

In Zonguldak, during the Ottoman Empire period, when coal was the most important energy source in the world, the coal production started by the companies with the Sultan's edict, during the First World War, the imperialist states were also involved and mining activities gradually developed. With the establishment of the Republic, basin mining was started in the region and investments were increased. In addition to coal-based industrial facilities, collective living spaces such as workers' and civil servants' estates specific to the region, educational institutions, shopping centers such as economy, social and sports facilities have been built in the province, and a new life culture, in which mining is at the center, has developed. Technical staff trained in mining in Zonguldak; They not only contributed to the development of mining in the province, but also spread throughout the country and pioneered the establishment and development of mining in Turkey.

With the beginning of the extraction of hard coal, the connection of the region with the country and the world has increased by establishing ports, the railway to coal, the road network and, most recently, an airport. Coal, which was initially used to run engines working with heat and steam power, has also been used as an alternative energy source (air) gas (I) in big cities. In Çatalağzı, it was converted into electrical energy with thermal power plants built by the state and gradually increasing in number and capacity with the involvement of the private sector, and electrical energy was connected to the national network and formed the basis of the development of the country. Ereğli and Karabük Iron and Steel Factories and Filyos Fire Brick Factory, which are the largest iron and steel investments of our country, which also use coke obtained by using hard coal as energy input, were established in this geography. Evaluating the products produced by brick factories, iron and steel factories as well as cement and paper factories in the region; shipyard, rolling mill, pipe etc. A large number of private sector investments have been made. Thus, three provinces Zonguldak, Karabük and Bartın were established and developed in the Northwest Anatolian Hard Coal Basin.

A local way of working and living has developed, with the miners residing in city centers uninterruptedly working in the status of "permanent worker", and those residing in villages working for one month in the village and one month in the quarries, in an order also called "group worker". While the workers living in groups in the fortified villages generally worked in the art of digger and pigman on the production boards where trees were used as fortification material, the permanent workers living in the city center and generally coming from outside of Zonguldak worked in the excavation of the galleries opened in the stone, where the main fortification was made with iron ties. The villages of the workers in the group were divided into "kazmacı village" and "domuzdamcı village" according to their characteristics, and those from the same village were assigned to be together in the quarries, considering that they would support each other in extraordinary situations under the difficult working conditions of mining. The Workers' Union, the first worker organization in Turkey, the "Dilaver Pasha Regulations" determining the obligations of workers and employers, "liability" practices and large worker movements are the concrete results of the mining culture developed in Zonguldak. While the mining accidents in the region were the subject of laments, folk songs in which mining terms such as forest, life, iron and coal were sung, as in the folk song "Your eyebrows make a writ".

Due to the widest carboniferous window in the area where the city was formed, the largest enterprises of TTK (Karadon, Kozlu and Üzülmez TİM) were established close to the center of Zonguldak. Wastes taken out of the quarries, environmental pollution caused by power plants, subsidy movements caused by operations at depths close to the surface are the negative effects of mining activities in Zonguldak. Due to uncontrolled structuring in the process until today, settlement and management have been intertwined over time, urbanization has put pressure on management and has prevented mining from being carried out in a wider area. Today, while TTK tends to carry out mining activities at deep elevations, it has abandoned its quarries at depths close to the earth's surface and opened it to private sector management.

The importance of coal as an energy source is gradually decreasing worldwide due to the fact that it pollutes the environment more than oil and natural gas, it is produced underground in very difficult conditions, and the use of renewable resources that are less harmful to the environment. In the region affected by this situation, the number of workers working in the coal mines is gradually decreasing and the lifestyle formed due to the mining culture is changing. With the continuation of this change, which is a reflection of the mining culture created by people in the 190-year period from the beginning of coal production in the basin to the present; With its unique streets, avenues and architectural structures, Zonguldak is gradually changing and losing its original identity with high-rise new constructions that are similar to each other. By slowing down and postponing this change, which was made consciously by human hands and became unavoidable, the "Urban Identity" formed within the framework of mining may be preserved for a while. It should not be forgotten that cities with an identity are a source of happiness for their residents and visitors in terms of reminding their memories.