Deputy Şükür Donates Salary To Victims Of Mine Disaster

Hakan Şükür, an independent deputy for İstanbul who resigned from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in December of last year, has decided to donate his salary to those who lost their relatives in the Ermenek mine disaster.

Posting tweets on the issue via his personal Twitter account, Şükür announced that his salary will be distributed through the charity organization Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody There) until the 2015 general elections.

Şükür also announced that he will provide financial assistance to Recep Gökçe, 75, who came to the public's attention after he appeared in the media coverage during the disaster with a pair of rubber shoes that had holes in it, while he was grieving for his son who was killed in the mine disaster.

Regarding the motivation behind sharing the salary donation and other aid that he is giving to victims of the tragedy, Şükür wrote that he wanted to encourage other people to help the victims of the disaster.

After a mine in the Ermenek district of the province of Karaman was flooded on Oct. 28, 18 mine workers were trapped underground. While the bodies of several miners have been retrieved from the mine so far, some are still in the mine.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)