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Since 1988, The Nuclear-Free Future Awards founded by Franz Mol have been granted across the world to life defenders among communities which have been fighting against nuclear weapons, nuclear industry and uranium mining activities.
This year’s laureates come from Turkey, South Africa, Ethiopia, France and the Netherlands.
Attorney Arif Ali Cangı, the laureate from Turkey in category “Resistance” will receive his award with a ceremony on November 17 in Johannesburg.
The Nuclear-Free Future Award has five categories., namely; Resistance, Education, Solution and the two additional special categories of Lifetime Achievement and the Special Recognition.
First laureate from Turkey; Arif Ali Cangı
“Arif Ali Cangi, born in 1964 in the province of Mersin, is a leading jurist in the Turkish anti-nuclear movement. He has fought court battles against the illegal dumping of nuclear waste in Gaziemir, Izmir, against the construction of a nuclear power plant in Akkuyu, Mersin, and against the deadly environmental contamination brought on by uranium mining at Köprübasi, Manisa.
In 2012, Mr. Cangi was one of the first anti-nuclear activists to publicize and denounce the illegal dumping of nuclear waste in Gaziemir, where, together with a circle of scientists, he began a campaign to educate the local population about the radioactive danger contaminating their living environs. Mr. Cangi currently spearheads legal proceedings to block the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant on the Mediterranean coast between Aydıncık and Silifke.
The first plans for the Akkuyu NPP were drawn up in the early seventies, only to be shelved. The current Turkish government, headed by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), resurrected the old plans, and recently entered into an agreement with Russian Rosatom to begin construction of the plant later on this year. On behalf of the Green Party and the Leftist Future Party (YSGP), Arif Ali Cangı has gone to court to block the plant's construction because the required preliminary safety evaluations were rife with error. Mr. Cangı's activism in this connection is powered in part by the fact that his family lives near the planned Akkuyu site.
Recently, Mr. Cangı has also lodged an environmental complaint against the former operators of the uranium mine in Köprübasi. The mine was active in the seventies and eighties, but the site was never remediated after shutdown, nor the local citizenry ever informed about the radioactive contamination. Much work awaits Arif Ali Cangi” (Source:The Nuclear-Free Future Awards Website) (NV/DG)
