105 trees cut down in fire-hit Muğla’s Akbelen: ‘We will stand fast’

"We are not going anywhere, we are on the watch" - Photo: İsmail Hakkı Atal

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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.

While 105 trees have been cut down so far, the gendarmerie tried to force the activists and locals keeping watch in the area to leave.

Mount Ida Natural and Cultural Assets Preservation Association Chair Süheyla Doğan and Ecology Union Women's Assembly Co-Spokesperson Füsun Kayra have spoken to bianet about the recent situation in the forest and their efforts to prevent trees from being cut down.

'We will resist'

Noting that "trees are not being cut down for the time being, villagers have made them stop", Süheyla Doğan has said:

"The Yeniköy Thermal Power Plant is being constructed and the plant needs a new area. Trees will be used as coal. But villagers do not want the trees to be used as coal. As part of the lawsuit filed, the panel of experts did an examination in the field. We will continue resisting."

Gendarmerie prevention

Füsun Kayra has spoken about the recent situation in the region:

"The LİMAK company wants to extend the mining site here to provide the thermal power plant with coal. We have learned that 105 trees have been cut down. We could come here in an hour.

"Gendarmerie officers came to the site where we are keeping watch. They said that they would wait in the forest and protect the trees from fire and being cut down. They took down our banners. We asked for a written order, but there was not any. Then, they came with a written order and wanted us to leave the area as per the Article 169 of the Constitution.

"This is an estate that belongs to a person. The person gave a notary-signed document about the accomodation and setting up tents. And we stay here. We will keep staying here even if the law enforcement comes. We will not leave. We will stand fast now and stop the cutting."

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)