‘Trees would have been cut down if we had not been here, we won’t leave Akbelen’

* Photo: "İkizköy İnsanca Yaşam için Direniyor" (İkizköy resists for a humane life) Twitter account

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The people of İkizköy village and environmentalists have been keeping watch in Muğla's Akbelen forest for the past 26 days in the face of LİMAK Holding's efforts to cut down trees to supply coal for a thermal power plant in the region and to extend the related mining site.

Gendarmerie officers intervened against the group last night (August 9), dragging them out of the forest.

Joining the vigil for the forest, Esra Işık from İkizköy, a senior student from Pamukkale University Department of Psychological Counselling and Guidance, has spoken to bianet about the current situation in the area.

CLICK - 105 trees cut down in fire-hit Muğla's Akbelen

Noting that the struggle has been going on for two years, Işık has shared the following information about what happened yesterday:

"There had recently been a provocation. Some people were constantly coming to the forest. We, as villagers, don't want to give away our forest. Because what keeps İkizköy alive is the Akbelen forest.

"We were saying, 'They cannot dare coming here while everywhere is on fire.' But the companies of LİMAK and İÇTAŞ sent the voluntary cutting workers here from the Yeniköy - Kemerköy Thermal Power Plant. They butchered around 100 trees. We forced the workers out of the forest, we prevented them. We called the gendarmerie several times yesterday, but they didn't come. They finally came, took down minutes and left."

Watch is still ongoing'

Işık has underlined that "while there are so many forest fires in the country and in a period when the country is faced with deforestation, the forest would have been destroyed if they had not been here."

Noting that "LİMAK and İÇTAŞ, the owners of the Yeniköy - Kemerköy Thermal Power Plant, especially LİMAK, are very large companies," Işık has said, "As far as I know, LİMAK has three or four thermal power plants. The companies were very bothered by this. We posted messages exposing the companies. We raised our voices and they received so many reactions."

There is a permit

Indicating that officials of the Milas Sub-Governor's Office also came to the Akbelen forest yesterday, Işık has said:

"We were staying in an estate belonging to a person. We also prepared a certificate of permission in the name of our association and signed the document. Our stay was permitted. We took our precautions beforehand. Everything was okay. The Sub-Governor's Office told us to leave."

Intervention of the gendarmerie

According to Esra Işık, the villagers who are keeping watch during the day go back to their houses in the evening, which causes fewer people to stay in the forest at night: "As soon as the villagers went to their houses, the gendarmerie came here, urging us to leave."

Işık has briefly added the following:

"The friends here said, 'We won't get out of this place, we are seeking our rights by legal means. No written notice has been delivered to us.' They held people in the arm and leg, dragging them out of there. An older woman had bruises in her arm, we will get a medical report of battery about this. After we came down, Anti-Riot Water Cannon Vehicles and law enforcement arrived as well. They dragged us, we couldn't overcome their hindrance."

'The company is not getting satisfied'

Işık has stressed that they will keep defending the forest:

"They have perhaps taken us out of there, but we will not leave the place where they have brought us. We won't leave our forest. There will be people from the Ecology Union, there will be people expressing support among the people, people will come here from Mount Ida.

"We are getting stronger thanks to the support on social media. We keep on seeking our rights by legal means. But we see that legal means do not work. Because the company won't stop, they never get satisfied."

Why is Akbelen in danger?

Muzaffer Başaran, the former Director General of the Power Production Inc. (EÜAŞ), has explained why the company wants to enter the Akbelen forest:

"There is an 8-million-ton lignite reserve in Muğla region. And there are three thermal power plants: Yatağan, Yeniköy and Kemerköy. There are two units on the Örenli-Milas highway near the Yeniköy Thermal Power Plant. Yeniköy was getting coal from two mines: Sekköy mine and İkizköy mine.

"Both mines are about to run out of coal. There is an 100-million-ton lignite reserve underground in the south of Karacahisar. And this lignite reserve is under the Akbelen forest. There is coal 60-70 meters deep under Akbelen forest. They will dig up this place for the Yeniköy plant."

Mayor: Leave our handful of trees

Ahmet Aras, the Mayor of Bodrum, also went to Akbelen today (August 10) in support of the citizens keeping watch in the region.

Recalling that Muğla is one of the provinces most affected by forest fires, Aras said, "This place is full of trees that have turned into coal. If they want coal, they can use it all they want. But let us have our handful of trees here. What kind of unconsciousness is that?"

What happened?

The Akbelen Forest in Muğla's Milas was cut down in order to provide the Yeniköy Kemerköy Thermal Power Plant operated by the LİMAK Holding with lignite. The villagers of İkizköy, where the forest is located, have been waging a struggle in the face of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's permission to open a lignite mine in the 740-decare Akbelen Forest.

Villagers and environmentalists sued the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the General Directorate of Forestry by applying to the Muğla 1st Administrative Court. Receiving the defense of the administration, the court ruled for an expert examination in the forest.

Not waiting for the court ruling, the Directorate General of Forestry came to the forest with excavators on July 17 and started cutting trees. In response, the people of İkizköy filed a criminal complaint against the officials of the Directorate General for "misconduct in office."

The cutting of trees stopped thanks to the struggle of the villagers who put up tents and started keeping watch at the entrance of the forest.

The villagers' watch is still ongoing. (NÇ/DŞ/SD)