Zonguldak: Agricultural fields expropriated for a scrap melting facility

* Photos: Pusula Haber

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In Perşembe town in Zonguldak's Çaycuma district, there are efforts of expropriation to build a scrap melting facility on a 230-decare land in the eastern part of the Çaycuma Organized Industrial Zone.

In the face of this attempt, the locals gathered in Keçecioğlu Neighborhood in Çaycuma and announced that they object to the expropriation, the expansion of the organized industrial zone and the construction of a scrap melting facility by the Çağ Çelik steel company in the area.

They have also launched a petition.

'Why don't we want it?'

As reported by daily Evrensel, Ecder Dombaycı from Keçecioğlu Neighborhood made a statement on behalf of the locals and explained why they object to the expropriation. He briefly said:

"The last and most valuable lands of our neighborhood are attempted to be taken away from us; the neighborhood is not given the right to live.

"The neighborhood's opportunity to grow and expand is being destroyed.

"The neighborhood is stuck between the Organized Industrial Zone and the former Çaycuma-Perşembe road.

"As the region will be more attractive with the establishment of Filyos Industrial Zone, no one guarantees that the entire neighborhood will not be expropriated one day as a result of expanding industry.

Especially during the pandemic, we have seen that people leave big cities and return to their villages and hometowns to lead a natural life. While the ones who live in cities escape from cities, we do not want these agricultural fields and estates next to our neighborhood to be filled with factories and buildings.

"We do not want our citizens, who make a living on or who gain an additional income from our lands which are being cultivated, where people are doing beekeeping and on which they have all types of fruit saplings, especially hazelnut and walnut, to be aggrieved."

'It is time to be together'

Further in his statement, Ecder Dombaycı underlined that they, as the locals of the region, grew up by eating the vegetables they grew in their gardens and plucking fruits from the trees in front of their houses.

Noting that they have already been living an organic life, he said, "We don't give away our lands so that we can look our children in the face when we grow old." He also called on everyone including the municipality and the neighborhood head "to be on their side in this rightful struggle."

Statement by mayor

Coming to the scene upon invitation, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP)'s Perşembe Town Mayor İsmail İnam addressed the crowd and said that he wants the Organized Industrial Zone to grow and Perşembe to develop. He asked people, "Do you want Perşembe to develop?" People responded, "No, we don't. It shall not develop."

In response to this, Mayor İsmail İnam said, "What you say now will come your way one day. People from here work at the organized industrial zone. Bartın, Zonguldak, Karabük, Ereğli have grown with investments. People migrate from villages to İstanbul every day."

Perşembe Mayor İsmail İnam

When he reminded people that Yeşil Çaycuma will be protected, Ecder Dombaycı, speaking on behalf of the locals, said, "I don't want a factory on this soil. If it won't develop, so be it. There are these agricultural fields, there are 500 bee hives. I say what will happen, too: We will perhaps not see it, but this neighborhood will also go away one day."

Dombaycı added that the first thing they will do will be to have a decision of stay of execution handed down. (TP/SD)