ANKARA, July 27 (AFP) - Turkey's main opposition party said Tuesday it would seek to reconvene parliament to censure the transport minister after 38 people died in a train accident, Anatolia news agency reported.
The Republican People's Party (CHP) will ask parliament, currently in summer recess, to reconvene for an extrordinary session in August to take up the issue, CHP deputy chairman Esref Erdem told reporters, Anatolia said.
The Turkish government has come under blistering fire for launching a fast express service on decade-old tracks, after one of the new trains derailed in the country's northwest on Thursday. Eighty people were hurt in addition to those killed.
Experts had earlier warned authorities that the fast train service, inaugurated between Ankara and Istanbul on June 4, was unsafe.
"Inaugurating a fast train without preparing a proper infrastructure is nothing but a murder," Erdem said.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has defended the project and rejected calls for the sacking of Transport Minister Binali Yildirim and other senior officials.
Experts are currently preparing a report on the cause of the accident.
The chief of the train crew and the two drivers were detained on charges of negligence after Yildirim said the train had exceeded the speed limit at the crash site, an argument disputed by the lawyers representing the drivers and trade unions.
A CHP legislator chained himself to tracks at Ankara's main train station Tuesday to protest the government's refusal to accept any blame for the accident.