53,800 football fields will be given to 3 companies
In the week that the Climate Law, which focuses on economic concerns, was enacted, it was revealed in the Turkish Grand National Assembly that an area the size of 53,800 football fields would be opened to mining activities by opening olive groves to mining activities. The bill that opens olive groves to mining activities has begun to be discussed in the Turkish Grand National Assembly and will continue to be discussed next week. CHP Muğla Deputy Cumhur Uzun announced that a total of 40 villages would be displaced and a coal mining permit would be issued for an area the size of 53,800 football fields.
He said that if there are olive trees on the land during mining activities, a ‘rip-out’ application will be made. Limak owned by Nihat Özdemir, IC İçtaş, the company of İbrahim Çeçen, and Aydem, whose Chairman of the Board is Ceyhan Saldanlı, will benefit from the regulation. Uzun, who said that the regulation aims to separate people from the olive trees they grow and the lifestyles they are accustomed to, said, “This offer was prepared specifically for individuals for the rent to be transferred to Aydem, Limak and İçtaş companies. People’s houses, fields and olive groves will be taken away from them for 3-5 years of coal.”
40 VILLAGES ARE BEING DISPLACED
Uzun made the following assessment regarding the damage that the regulation will cause: “If the law is enacted, the area to be granted operating permits for coal is 14 thousand hectares in Yatağan, which is the size of 20 thousand football fields. In Milas, it refers to an area of 24 thousand hectares and the size of 33 thousand 800 football fields. 12 villages in Yatağan and 28 villages in Milas Ören will be displaced again.”
Villagers who came from various provinces to protest the proposed law are keeping watch at Cemal Süreya Park near the TBMM. Ayişe Günay, one of the villagers who spent the night in the park, said, “They will plunder our land because there is a mine. Türkiye cannot exist without the Aegean, tourism, olives, honey, gardens, figs and fruit.”
'The olive tree is immovable'The olive trees that were transported in Italy and Spain, as in Aydın Çine, dried up. İYİ Party Çanakkale Deputy Rıdvan Uz, who brought the issue to the agenda in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, refuted the government’s defense that it would ‘transport 87 thousand olive trees’ with the statement, “Spain and Italy tried. Italy transported 231 olive trees, 80 percent dried up, and the productivity of the rest decreased. The same thing happened in Spain. Olive trees cannot be transported.” Uz criticized the regulation by saying, “It is an assimilation, a cultural destruction. The area at risk around Milas and Yatağan is approximately 400 thousand acres.”
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