‘We will protect the trees in İzmir as well as in Kurdistan’

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"The government has been organizing a war, trying to make the burning issues on the country's agenda such as hunger and poverty invisible. The struggle for ecology is not above politics. It is not possible for us to succeed with such a mindset. The companies involved in the plunder of nature are not pro-government, they are directly the partners of the government."

In talking about "war", Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) İzmir MP and Parliamentary Committee on Environment member Murat Çepni refers to the air and land operation launched by the Turkish Armed Forces in the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) territory in Iraq's North on April 17 and the ensuing destruction of trees in the region.

Hundreds of trees have been razed to the ground during the military operations launched in the Kurdish-majority provinces for years.

Forest lands have been covered with reinforced military outposts, military bases, towers and dams. Only in Mount Cudi in Şırnak province, 20 military towers and two modular base areas have been constructed.

'Struggle for ecology is not above politics'

Addressing the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), HDP's Murat Çepni says that the government has established itself upon an intensive exploitation of labor and invited the international capital to Turkey:

They say, 'We will offer you all kinds of opportunities in Turkey.' Do you want a cheap labor force, a precarious working environment or plunder? They say they will offer them all. The model of economic accumulation is shaped around the AKP's exploitation of nature and people; the policies of war stand at the center of this model.

"As long as ecology groups do not say 'no' to these conditions, the struggle that they wage cannot possibly succeed. When people wage a struggle against a stone quarry in the Black Sea region, the AKP's law enforcement stand against them. Then, we see that it is said, 'These people are supported by external powers.' The situation is in fact extremely obvious."

'Struggle for ecology is struggle for democracy'

Çepni says that as the government sees trees as a tool for unearned income, it abandons them to their fate, adding that reconnaissance flights should be made regularly so that fires can be prevented:

"When we say, 'Let's just not stand against the state', we in fact say nothing. A struggle for ecology is also a struggle for democracy. More than half of the country's surface area has been declared mining sites.

"When [President and AKP Chair Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan says, 'Do you know how much a bullet costs?', he says, 'I protect you, I fight for you; and you take the trouble to famish.' What we should do is very simple: We will protect the trees in İzmir as well as in Kurdistan." (TY/SD)