For a moment, it felt as if the government might fall. Surely this was the sort of industrial calamity that would spark outrage in everyone. But three months later, Erdogan, who had already been prime minister for a dozen years, was elected president of the republic for four more. This outcome was not unexpected; he is a popular leader, partly because of Turkey’s growth under his leadership, partly because he has undermined any opposition to his rule. A country like Turkey might be in some sort of industrial childhood, like Britain in the 19th century, and Erdogan might be right that you can’t go through an industrial revolution without tribulations. But Britain and the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries probably had more effective influences supporting reform — unions, a free press, stronger opposition parties, the fear of Communism — than 21st-­century Turkey, where globalization and capitalism have been overwhelming forces. Ordinary people felt as if they were shouting into a void.

Much of the attention paid to Soma has faded in light of Turkey’s larger geopolitical issues, namely new tensions with the country’s Kurdish population and allegations that the government has allowed thousands of members of the Islamic State militant group to pass through Turkey to the Syrian border. But the legal cases against Soma Holding continue. This month, Turkish prosecutors asked for eight company executives to be imprisoned; 29 other employees, including mine managers, engineers and security supervisors, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter. The September report from the Soma public prosecutor found 20 counts of gross negligence at the Eynez mine: inadequate ventilation, flammable equipment, inadequate education for miners, lack of gas sensors, poor telephone systems inside the mine, defective gas masks, an incomplete fire-escape plan. It’s still not known what caused the fire: whether methane gas, which often causes an explosion, or the oxidation of coal, which emits carbon monoxide. Ayhan Yuksel, the coal-mining engineer, said Eynez might not have monitored its coal-oxidation levels carefully. “And because of overproduction, there were more workers than should have been in the mine,” he said.

This month, a parliamentary investigation undertaken by representatives from all political parties concurred with many of the report’s findings, including the claim that the pressure to produce so much coal caused mine managers to overlook safety concerns. But Ozgur Ozel, an opposition member of Parliament who has been warning about the conditions in Soma mines for years, criticized the A.K.P.-led commission for declining to explore the larger systemic issues that might have created the poor mine conditions in the first place: the relationships between the companies and the government, the lack of transparency in licensing the mines, the way the government uses coal as a form of patronage to the poor. “When you want to talk about these reasons,” Ozel told me, “they prevent it.” (Erdogan’s office denied these claims.)

A “Soma bill” recently passed the Parliament, too. It met some of the miners’ demands: six-hour shifts, a lowering of the retirement age, the erasure of debts for victims’ families, paid vacations. Ozel believes that Turkey’s mines are still unsafe, however. “Most of the promises were kept to the families of the dead,” he said. “They were given houses and money. There has been a little improvement in terms of the miners’ basic rights. But with respect to the security of the mines, none of the promises have been kept.” Critics also contend that a system in which the state subcontracts out coal production to a private company, which in turn subcontracts some of its labor to unaccountable middlemen, will always be an irresponsible and destructive one.

Since the Soma disaster, Ozel says, some 30 additional miners have died in Turkey; in late October, 18 miners drowned in a flooded mine in Ermenek, a town in central Anatolia. In response, the government has pledged to issue a reform bill for work safety, while opposition members of Parliament have demanded the resignation of Taner Yildiz, the energy minister. Also, protests returned to Soma this month because a construction company illegally ripped up 6,000 olive trees belonging to small farmers in order to build a new coal-burning thermal power plant. When farmers occupied the land, the company’s security team beat them up. The construction firm, Kolin Group, is part of a consortium of companies recently chosen to build a controversial third airport in Istanbul, which the A.K.P. promises will be the largest in the world.

The miners of Soma remain traumatized. They say they feel as if their lives have no value. When Tevrat was finally ready to go home after days at Eynez, he began to walk the 17 miles back to Soma. A passing car gave him a ride until they reached a checkpoint. The A.K.P., fearing insurrection, had dispatched the police to prevent people from entering Soma. Tevrat approached a policeman. His appearance made it obvious that he was a miner.

“Can a car take me home, or just open the road?” Tevrat asked.

“No, we cannot open the road.”

“I have been at the mine for five days. I want to go home.”