{"id":1006,"date":"2023-08-16T13:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T10:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marchemondiale.org\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2024-08-31T13:20:52","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T10:20:52","slug":"defending-the-akbelen-forest-in-turkiye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marchemondiale.org\/?p=1006","title":{"rendered":"Defending the Akbelen Forest in T\u00fcrkiye"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Defending the Akbelen Forest in T\u00fcrkiye<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Residents of \u0130kizk\u00f6y, a village in Milas District, in the southwestern province of Mu\u011fla, have been engaged in a two-year-long struggle to protect the Akbelen Forest and its inhabitants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The local communities are leading this resistance against the expansion project of a coal mine providing coal to a nearby thermal power plant in Milas, Mu\u011fla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three coal-fired thermal power plants in Milas and Yata\u011fan, and the coal mines fuelling them, are destroying Mu\u011fla’s agricultural lands and forests, polluting its air and water, while causing premature deaths and diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although scientists have warned that mining will cause irreversible damage to the region in studies on the subject, public interest is being sacrificed and demands of the local communities are ignored, for the sake of a “dirty energy” management model. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are 60 villages within the coal mines operation license area in Milas, eight of which have been completely destroyed, while 15 have been partially destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The local communities have been losing their living spaces and livelihoods due to coal for years, and they have been subjected to a great usurpation of rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a sudden move on the 24th of July, law enforcement and riot control vehicles arrived at the site and tree-cutting operations commenced. Eight individuals were detained and four were injured during the local communities’ resistance against the operations. The villagers and life defenders who wanted to stop the tree-cutting operations were exposed to the violence of the law enforcement officers and faced a blockade. Attacks with tear gas, pressurized water, and batons are ongoing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another context, in Kaz Da\u011flar\u0131, although the permission given to Alamos Gold company to search for gold using cyanide was canceled due to people\u2019s pressures, it caused 350 thousand trees to be slaughtered. We demand that the work be stopped immediately before it is too late so that the same situation does not happen in Akbelen. Defending lands, forests, water, and living creatures, we call against:<\/p>\n\n\n\n