The country’s administration keeps quiet about the protests because it fears they will grow, says a Turkish researcher interviewed by .
In Turkey, a bigger dispute is brewing over a local environmental dispute, in which the activists responsible for deforestation and the country’s authoritarian leadership are at odds.
This is the opinion of the researcher interviewed by I performed Düzelwho visited the village of Ikizköy in southwestern Turkey last week.
There, environmental activists have continued their demonstrations since the beginning of the week, in which people from further afield in Turkey have also begun to participate.
Activists are protesting the expansion of the coal mine, which has already cut down around 74 hectares of the local forest. The average size of a Finnish forest farm is 32 hectares.
Environmental activists are against cutting down the forest because they believe it will lead to water shortages and the collapse of the region’s ecosystem.
– They slaughtered our forest, comments a local resident Nejla Isik according to the newspaper Duvar.
The latest demonstrations are a continuation of several weeks of protests that have turned into violent clashes between authorities and activists.
Demonstrations have been broken up with, for example, water cannons and riot police have been used against protesters.
In the second week, around 40 protesters were arrested, according to the local authorities, according to the news agency AP.
Residents oppose the companies
In Ikizköy, the forest has been cut down so that lignite, i.e. brown coal, can be mined from the area. This coal would be used by two nearby thermal power plants.
The power plants are operated by the companies IC Ictas Energy and Limak Energy, which have close relations with the Turkish government.
The companies supported by the administration and the local residents are on the opposite side, characterizes researcher Esin Düzel in an interview with .
Dr. Düzel in Anthropology is a researcher at Sabancı University in Turkey, who works in the EU-funded green transition research project.
The researcher last visited the protest area last week.
– The opposition to logging started four years ago, when the local residents heard about the expansion of the mine, Düzel explains.
In Düzel’s opinion, the local environmental struggle describes the problems of Turkish society more broadly.
According to the researcher, legislation in Turkey offers a lot of protection to forests and limits their felling, for example in the name of economic benefit. The problem is that the law is not followed.
Two years ago, local residents found that legal advocacy was leading to a dead end, after which they began chaining themselves to trees to prevent logging.
– And now the authorities have reacted to a peaceful protest with a heavy use of force, the researcher describes.
The administration is silent
The Turkish president, who usually strongly condemns various protests Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has not publicly commented on the unrest in recent weeks.
According to the researcher, it’s about not wanting more attention for the protests.
– The government’s silence indicates that they are afraid that this matter will grow bigger, Düzel estimates.
The administration’s caution may be justified.
In 2013, plans to replace Istanbul’s Gezi Park with a shopping mall and luxury apartments sparked nationwide protests.
A local environmental dispute gave rise to a popular movement that undermined the position of the Turkish government and Erdoğan, who was prime minister at the time.
For the administration of Erdoğan, who is now president, the fight against climate change is not a very important issue.
According to a report by the Climate Transparency organization, Turkey currently produces approximately 32 percent of its electricity with coal power.
Due to climate change, southwest Turkey has seen a lot of forest fires in recent years. In July, the island of Rhodes, which belongs to Greece, suffered from historically extensive forest fires.
– Cutting down a forest for a coal power plant is a short-sighted pursuit of profit, explains researcher Düzel.
Source: AP