"Murderous company" - * Photo: Social media
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The gendarmerie intervened against the people who were keeping watch in the Akbelen Forest in Muğla's Milas in the face of the attempts to open a lignite mine. Forcing the people out of the forest in an intervention at midnight (August 10), the gendarmerie have set up barricades.
The villagers are still waiting in the area.
CLICK - 105 trees cut down in fire-hit Muğla's Akbelen
Muğla is one of the several provinces razed by forest fires in Turkey in the last 13 days. Amid these forest fires in different parts of Muğla, citizens have been keeping watch in Akbelen forest for 25 days.
Citizens still waiting in the area
While 105 trees have been reportedly cut down in the Akbelen Forest under the pretext of preventing fires, the gendarmerie wanted the resistance area to be evacuated. The citizens keeping watch in the forest have been dragged out of the area by the gendarmerie.
Tying herself to a tee, Füsun Kayra has called on people to express support for the Akbelen Forest. The villagers are still waiting in the area.
Coming to the area earlier yesterday, the gendarmerie requested that the local and environmentalists keeping watch in the forest leave the area.
Deniz Gümüşel from the İkizköy Committee of Environment Deniz Gümüşel said: "The Milas District Gendarmerie Command and Milas sub-governor appointed for disasters came to the area where we are keeping watch. Notifying the Muğla Governor's Office's decision about the ban on entrance to forests, they wanted the area to be cleared.
"We said that we would not leave the area and asked them to send us the related decision in writing to see based on what instruction they wanted to force us out of the forest. We will give the decision to the lawyer and raise the necessary administrative objections."
Gümüşel also said, "The place where we stay is a private estate which belongs to a person and that person has permitted us to stay here. But the gendarmerie do not leave. There are legal conditions for us staying here, but they try to clear the area in spite of this. They say that 'it is not about the watch kept in Akbelen.' If you are here too and if we are more crowded here, they will be unable to deprive us of our rightful struggle and our space."
Gümüşel called on everyone to claim the Akbelen Forest.
ACİLLLL YARDIM #AkbelenOrmanı 'nda kolluk kuvvetleri köylülerimizi ve arkadaşlarımızı alandan çıkartıyor ve gözaltına alacaklar
— Muğla Çevre Platformu -MUÇEP (@muglacep) August 9, 2021
RT ve bölgeye destek lütfen. #AkbelenOrmanınıTerketmiyoruz pic.twitter.com/UA9kmC2DaY
Milas'ta yanan ormanlarımız yetmezmiş gibi Akbelen Ormanı'nı kesip kömürlü termik santral yapmak istiyorlar!@limakholding' e kolaylık, ikizköy'lülere işkence edenler bilsinler ki; biz #AkbelenOrmanınıTerketmiyoruz. pic.twitter.com/xUHWXqkvKF
— Her Yer Kazdağları #KazdağlarıHepimizin (@heryerkazdaglar) August 9, 2021
(EMK/SD)