18th Day of Ida Mountains Watch: Peaceful Protest of Civilian People Continues

* Photographs: bianet

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Today is August 12, 2019. Today marks the 18th day of Water and Conscience Watch against the destruction of nature due to the activities of Canada-based Alamos Gold company in Ida Mountains, Çanakkale.

The ones on watch here decided to support the cooling efforts in Gallipoli fire that erupted in Saturday evening and was taken under control yesterday.

15 people from the Ida Mountains watch went to the area where the fire broke out and have returned after the cooling efforts were routinized.

A forum was held in the camping area in the late afternoon and the ones participating in the forum discussed the order of tents and their security.

Environmental defenders roamed around the area in shifts to ensure both their personal security and that of the nature.

The fire brigade truck of Çanakkale Provincial Municipality also kept waiting in the area round the clock.

'Deforestation causes climate crisis'

We talked to Greenpeace activists Tuğçe and Baran who joined the watch yesterday. The two were also accompanied by Tuğçe's friend Çapkın.

Tuğçe explained their reasons for coming here as follows:

"We came here on Saturday and will stay here until the tents are removed.

"The mine project is something that will both jeopardize the health of people of Çanakkale and lead to loss of biological species in the region.

"Deforestation is one of the main causes of climate crisis.

"We, as the Greenpeace, is not actively campaigning about this issue, but we are supporting the local movement here.

'Civilian people protesting peacefully'

Tuğçe also shared her impressions of the watch:

"It is, in fact, an area where the civilian people put up a resistance as an initiative and react against the ongoing activities in the mining site.

"It mostly consists of non-violent protests and people-oriented individual participations. As it is not a provocative environment, I can say that there is quite an healthy resistance environment.

"I participated in local resistances before. I spent my day today with a morning walk and by painting banners.

"My plan for tomorrow (today) is to talk about the model of non-violent protesting used by Greenpeace to support the protest plan here.

"In cooperation with the Association for Protecting Wildlife in Mount Ida, we asked questions to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry regarding the destruction in the region. Our friends who used to work here made interviews with the local people as well. You can watch it in our YouTube channel." (PT/SD)