Cyanide solution leaks from waste pond in Erzincan: 'It's Turkey's Chernobyl'

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

Because of the damage in the pipeline carrying a solution containing cyanide, about 20 cubic meters of the solution leaked in a gold mine near the Çöpler village in the İliç district of Erzincan, eastern Turkey.

Several ecology groups held a demonstration yesterday (June 30) in İstanbul's Kadıköy and read out a statement for the press.

The crowd chanted the slogans, "Cyanide is flowing from İliç to the Euphrates River," "We are here, we will defend nature," and "Justice for nature, justice for life, justice for climate."

CLICK - Huge waste pond of gold mine near Euphrates river 'poisoning region' 

"The government is responsible"

Hüsnüye Gölbaşı, who read out the statement, said, "Mezopotamya, a cradle of civilization, is condemned to breathe poison despite the struggle of the ecology organizations.

"In the last two months, the leak in the waste pond has become ordinary. What happened at the Çöpler Gold Mine is not an accident, it is an attack on nature and living spaces."

The government is responsible for the environmental damage caused by mining activities all around Turkey, she said. "Companies that know no limits in hypocrisy pass insoluble problems to the future generations. Forests and rivers do not belong to the capital."

Light penalties

"This attitude has resulted in disasters in Bergama, Kütahya and Gümüşhane in the past. It recently caused the poisoning of workers and residents in Muradiye, Manisa.

"When nature is almost completely destroyed at the end of this whole process, a small amount of gold to be extracted from these areas will have no value."

"When you take away the right of future generations to live in a healthy environment and destroy life in the region, will the gold you extract bring back what we lost?

"This scandalous penalty given to the uncontrolled, uncontrolled and brutal colonial mining activities was nothing more than a little berating. It was probably even more encouraging for [the companies]."

"Stop the eco-destruction"

The groups demanded the closure of the Çöpler Gold Mine and the halt of gold mining activities in the region.

The following groups attended the demonstration: Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Ecology Commission, Kemaliye and Köyler Environmental Platform, Divriği Cultural Association, Divriği Life and Nature Platform, Bakırtepe Environmental Platform, Malatya Environmental Platform, Munzur Environmental Platform, Ecology Union.

(FT/HA/VK)