Petition for Akbelen forest: ‘We won’t surrender it for coal’

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Musician Tarkan has denounced the gendarmerie intervention against the villagers who were keeping watch in the Akbelen forest in the face of a company's attempts to cut down trees to supply coal for a thermal power plant in the region and to extend the related mining site.

Sharing a video featuring the gendarmerie intervention and people's resistance on his social media account, Tarkan has written, "The massacrist seeking after unearned income do not take the warnings of climate crisis seriously and keep on destroying our forests. Our forests are being destroyed all across our country. Leave nature alone. Wake up now."

Rant peşindeki doğa katliamcıları iklim krizinin uyarılarını ciddiye almıyor ve ormanlarımızı yok etmeye devam ediyor.
Ülkemizin dört bir yanında ormanlarımız katlediliyor.
Rahat bırakın doğayı artık.
Uyanın artık! #AkbelenOrmanınıTerketmiyoruz https://t.co/QUi8SNlQnp. pic.twitter.com/T6g8WF8w8M

— Tarkan (@tarkan) August 10, 2021

The musician has also shared the online petition launched for the Akbelen Forest titled "We Will Not Surrender Akbelen Forest for Coal."

Addressed to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and signed by over 60 thousand people so far, the petition briefly reads:

'We no longer want to sacrifice our nature'

"We, the local communities of Milas and Yatağan in Muğla province of Turkey, have been living under the destructive impacts of Yeniköy, Kemerköy, and Yatağan coal-fired power plants and coal mines for four decades.

"Now the last natural area, Akbelen Forest, with its trees, bushes, birds, thyme, and mushrooms, is under the threat of an expanding open-pit lignite mine. Let's not surrender Akbelen Forest for coal!

"Although they were to be retired by now, the coal-fired power plants and coal mines in Muğla were privatized in 2014. Now, there are plans to extend their lifespan for an added 25 years, without even conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

"The coal mine, extending uninterruptedly for 15 kilometers and that has swallowed many of our villages in the last 40 years, reached İkizköy a few years ago. As dwellers of İkizköy, we are struggling to survive, right next to Yeniköy-İkizköy open-pit lignite mine and 7 kilometers away from Yeniköy Thermal Power Plant.

"For the last two years, we have been fighting for Akbelen Forest, the last remaining olive groves, agricultural areas, and our village, which are under the threat of expanding coal mines.

"If these lands are sacrificed for coal, we will become homeless, landless; we will lose our agricultural livelihoods. We will have to leave our village and be displaced to the city just like thousands of other villagers of Muğla had to do over the last four decades.

"We no longer want to sacrifice our nature and living spaces and give another 25 years of our life to coal.

"We demand our right to speak for our future!"

Demands

The petition has expressed the following demands:

"We demand;

• Discontinuation of clearance operations in 740 decares of Akbelen Forest, which is an old and natural red pine forest; which keeps the dust of the mine away from our village, provides us clean air, water, food, and hosts many animal and plant species, especially the birds that are under the Bern Convention protection;
• Cancellation of the decision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry signed on 18.11.2020, which grants a mine operation permit in the Akbelen Forest area;
• A Cumulative Environmental Impact Assessment to be conducted, incorporating the effects of the mine site expansion project within the license area numbered 86541, which also includes the Akbelen Forest, the capacity increase project of the Yeniköy and Kemerköy coal-fired power plants, as well as other coal mines, Yatağan Coal-Fired Power Plant, and other activities in the region such as other mining operations and industrial agriculture;
• Public consultation on the lifespan extension plans of power plants and coal mines."

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. (EMK/SD)