Recep Tayyip Erdogan is very angry with the environmentalists currently mobilized in Türkiye. The head of state on Monday strongly attacked environmental defenders opposed to the project to extend a coal mine and warned the opposition against any political exploitation.
“Coal-fired power plants have become an important source of energy for European countries with the crisis triggered by the war between Russia and Ukraine”, argued the president, citing “Germany and France”. .
“Marginal environmentalists”, according to Erdogan
In the Akbelen forest, above Bodrum, a seaside resort on the Aegean Sea, villagers supported by environmental defenders have been taking turns since July 24 to try to block the road to chainsaws, protected by the gendarmes and armored vehicles. Authorities have made several arrests of activists who oppose the expansion of the coal mine.
“The thermal power station which produces almost two thirds of the electricity used in the Aegean region brings in almost a billion dollars to our economy,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan further affirmed after a meeting of his cabinet. “It is an important contribution for the country”, he insisted adding: “We do not pay attention to these marginal environmentalists, let us do what we have to do”.
The precedent of the 2013 challenge
These statements, the first of the Head of State since the start of the mobilization, come on the eve of an extraordinary meeting this Tuesday afternoon of the Turkish parliament at the request of the opposition about the Akbelen forest. . “Some are constantly trying to replay the same scenarios with different costumes, but no one believes it anymore,” accused Erdogan: a clear allusion to the Gezi protest movement in May 2013. At the time, anti-government demonstrations had were triggered to protect a park in Istanbul destined to disappear in favor of a real estate project: they had gradually spread to practically all of Turkey.
In 2020, the Ministry of Forests granted the company YK Energy, owned by the powerful Turkish holding company Limak, reputed to be close to the president according to its detractors, the extension of its coal mine in the Akbelen region. Since then, appeals have multiplied and the population has not given up. Coal – with 37 thermal power plants – provides the country with a third of its primary energy needs (according to the International Energy Agency, in 2021) and a third of its electricity.