People of Dikmece in quake-hit Hatay are on watch against expropriation of their arable lands

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The people in the Dikmece neighborhood of Antakya, Hatay, which is one of the settlements most severely hit by the February 6 earthquakes are now facing the threat of expropriation of their arable lands.

The people in the neighborhood are on the third day of their watch against the expropriation decision.

Video recordings shot by the Dikmece people show that heavy equipment owned by a subcontractor firm entered their lands today in the morning and that police were also deployed to the area.

The people of Dikmece have, in response, gathered in the neighborhood and marched to the place where work was being carried out.

They have often shouted, "Dikmece village is not for sale," and "Ma rıhna, nıhna hon" (We did not go away, we are here in Arabic).

The Republican People's Party (CHP) MPs Nermin Yıldırım Kaya, Mehmet Güzelmansur, and Servet Mullaoğlu, and Green and Left Party (YSP) Adana MP Tülay Hatimoğulları Oruç visited Dikmece today in support of the villagers who are trying to save their arable lands and olive groves.

Seven were detained yesterday

There were again protests yesterday in Dikmece, on the second day of the watch people are keeping in order to save their lands.

Seven people had been taken into custody by the police yesterday during the protests. Three of them were released in the evening yesterday, while the other four were released early this morning.

Hatimoğulları: Olive groves are the only source of income

YSP Adana MP Tülay Hatimoğulları visiting the place today told bianet that people in Dikmece were very worried "ever since the urgent expropriation started."

"Dikmece is one of the poorest villages of our city that was fully ruined in the earthquake. The olive groves and the arable lands are the only source of income for these people," she said.

A law dating 84 years back protects olive groves and does not allow them to be zoned for construction, she explained. However, an omnibus bill now passed included in its 25th article that olive groves in Hatay and in 14 other provinces could be zoned for housing.

Gendarma and water-cannon vehicles have been dispatched to the area where work is being carried ou.

"Why only in our villages?"

Hatipoğulları also said that urgent expropriation decisions were taken especially in villages where Arab Alawites live.

"Why only in our villages," she asked.

"The Arab Alawite people are asking this question," she added.

Mullaoğlu: "Decision should be reviewed"

bianet also talked to CHP Hatay MP Servet Mullaoğlu who was again in Dikmece today.

"Yes, the state can expropriate land. But I do not believe that the process was well-managed," he said.

The MP said, based on the information he has from the villagers, that there are degraded forest lands and public lands in the same area.

"Therefore, the Government has to review the decision taken here. The problems that the villagers who depend totally on the olive groves should be taken into consideration," the MP added. (VC/PE)