Home » today » World » Inhabitants of Ikizdere, Turkey, oppose quarry construction · Global Voices

Inhabitants of Ikizdere, Turkey, oppose quarry construction · Global Voices

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Screenshot of a DW report on Ikizdere.

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The İşkencedere Valley, in the Turkish province of Rize on the Black Sea, is known for its beautiful green valleys, its tea crops and its beekeeping. It currently faces the gravest environmental threat to date.

In March 2021, a presidential decree removed the status of a protected area from part of the valley, so that Cengiz Construction, a subsidiary of Cengiz Holding with allegedly close ties to the ruling Justice and Development Party, could continue its plans to build a quarry in the region.

They will be drawn around 16 million tons of stones to be used in the new port that Cengiz Construction is building in the nearby city of Rize. The company obtained the concession to extract minerals in the İşkencedere valley area for the next 75 years.

On April 21, 2021 the construction began and also the resistance of the inhabitants of İşkencedere.

In a interview with BBC Turkey, the Federation of Ikizdere Associations, representing the three nearby towns of Şimşirli, Cevizli and Gürdere, said the use of dynamite and chemicals in the quarry will pollute the region’s water supply.

The federation also ensures that at least 32,000 trees for this project. The trees include 50-year-old chestnut trees, essential for the production of the chestnut honey for which local communities are renowned. Musa Yilmaz, a resident of the place, told the Turkish newspaper Evrensel Daily that the townspeople observed the fall of the first trees with tears in the eyes.

The felling of trees added to the removal of 20 cm of ground cover, a process necessary for the extraction of basalt, will increase the risk of floods and landslides in the region, according to the Ordur Environmental Association. In a statement in support of local communities, Ordur added that dynamite explosions could damage nearby houses.

Project area

Location of İkizdere Valley

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The inhabitants of the region assure that the construction has already contaminated the nearby stream. The local Pervin Baş told turkish media: “I have to protest against the quarry because I cannot prepare food for my children. We do not have access to drinking water as the water supply was cut off when construction began. “

Solcu, a local news platform, released images of the area before and after the construction of the quarry began:

Ikizdere, before Cengiz and after Cengiz.

There should be no İkizdere stone quarry.
She is not alone.

Lawsuit

The inhabitants of the region they filed a lawsuit against the Turkish state in the hope that a court can reverse the presidential decision to remove environmental protection from the area. The lawsuit is awaiting a ruling in the Rize Administrative Court. In an interview with the Sozcu newspaper, lawyer Yakup Okumuşoğlu, representative of the inhabitants of the region, He said awaiting a ruling in their favor.

This is not the first time that İşkencedere residents have organized to protect the environment from damaging infrastructure projects. In 2019, they sued contractor SR Tarım who had been granted a permit to start a similar quarry in the valley. At that time, a judge ruled in favor of the community and the quarry was permanently canceled. The court stated that: “the construction and operation processes would produce inevitable and irreversible damage to the natural landscape.”

Cengiz Construction has been involved in other controversial infrastructure projects, such as the new Istanbul airport, 13 million trees were cut down for this construction in seven years, according indicates Northern Forest Defense, local movement that protects the environment. In 2018, the construction of the dique Ilisu in Mardin he left the Hasankeyf town 12,000-year-old underwater.

Protests

Since March 2021, the inhabitants of the region have been protesting the project with a sit-in and seeking support on social media.

On April 24, protests succeeded in forcing the company to halt construction of the quarry. They celebrated their brief victory with a traditional folk dance called “horon”:

Rize Governorate.
Rize District Governorate.
Kaymakc Cafer, gobernador del distrito de Rize.
There should be no İkizdere quarry.
Don’t touch the İkizdere valley.
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After all, Cengiz had to retire its construction machinery. The people of Ikizdere celebrated it with a horon dance.

Yes, we are at home. We can’t get out because of the pandemic, but they don’t stop. At least we can say something against Cengiz Holding’s motivation to build a quarry in Ikizdere. They destroyed the Black Sea with hydroelectric power plants. They kept the water. Now they go for the stone and the earth!

In their attempt to stop construction, community members even put their hives in front of the excavators.

Cevizlik quarry! Bees have also come to protect where they live! The Last Fight of Middle Earth!

On April 25, the police blocked the construction site with a barricade, but the inhabitants of the area still managed to get there through roads through the forest. The police attacked the protesters with tear gas and 15 were arrested (eight have already been released).

They are walking through the forest. The police blocked the roads and fined everyone who walks the streets.

Attack on the people of Ikizdere.

In Ikisdere, they attack our people with tear gas so that the contractor’s machinery can destroy nature. Shame on those who do this to Aunt Firdevs.

On May 5, Cengiz Construction published a release in response to protests. “Taking into account the environmental impact, all alternative quarries have been inspected by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure since the beginning of the process,” he said.

Despite the protests, Cengiz Construction requested that the Ministry of the Environment increase the quarry extraction limit. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure granted a permit to the company to open a second quarry in the village of Gürdere.

Women in front

From the first day of the protests, women have been at the forefront of the struggle in Ikizdere.

The feminine resistance present!
We do not accept the quarry that Cengiz Holding tried to build in the İşkencedere valley, despite the resistance of the Ikizdere people, nor the looting of nature.
The female will present!
Women in front of the barricade!

The massacre in Ikizdere continues. The group, including older women, is expelled. The felling of trees continues.

We are right, we will win. Ikizdere resists.

Local Emine Tuncer told DW: “Our hives are here, our pastures are here […] How are we going to make honey now?

Women from neighboring regions also expressed their solidarity. The Fındıklı Municipality Women’s Choir joined the protest with music:

The Fındıklı Municipality Women’s Choir supports residents who oppose the construction of a quarry in Ikizdere.

Others climbed trees to avoid being cut down:

A tree for everyone.

The locals expressed to the local media online Bianet: “We will not give our tea, or our gardens, to anyone. Our grandmothers, our grandfathers built this town with their hands, we have nowhere else to go ”.

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