ISTANBUL - Forested areas are donated to supporters for reasons such as "security", mining, energy and tourism. Çiğdem Özbaş, a member of the Green Left Party Climate Justice Coalition, stated that the situation in question should be tackled.

 

Forest areas are either destroyed or profited for reasons such as mining, energy, tourism and transportation. Many forested areas have been destroyed for AKP supporters, especially in the cities located on the coastlines. Between 2015 and 2020 alone, an average of 11,000 football fields of forest burned. Many forested areas were also destroyed by various permits. The provision "New forest is grown in the place of burning forests" was ignored in the following processes. Huge luxury hotels have risen in some of the areas that have been burned or allowed to be destroyed.

 

While this is the case in the cities on the coastline, in Kurdistan, forest areas are destroyed under the name of "security". Thousands of trees have been cut down in the Cudi, Gabar and Besta regions in Şırnak and the rural areas of Amed, Muş, Colemêrg and Bedlîs in recent years. The guards sold the trees they cut down in various provinces.

 

Çiğdem Özbaş, a member of the Climate Justice Coalition of the Greens and Left Future Party (Green Left Party), who evaluated the issue, drew attention to the fact that forest areas are gradually disappearing due to the massacre.

 

NEOLIBERAL POLICIES

 

Emphasizing that the destruction of forest areas around the world is related to the climate crisis, Özbaş said: "Serious measures should be taken in the international arena at the current stage. After the Paris Agreement, which was signed by more than a hundred countries against the climate crisis and entered into force in 2016, deforestation on a global scale decreased slightly, due to the neoliberal policies of the AKP government in recent years, forested areas in Turkey have been given back to sectors such as mining, energy and tourism.

 

'RANT CENTERS OF GOVERNMENT'

 

Expressing that AKP and capital centers have turned forest areas into “rent centers”, Özbaş said: “If you build new development-centered forest areas for industrial purposes, or if you cut down old trees and plant industrial trees instead, ecological forests will disappear. When we say industrial, we are talking about market-based forests that are created for sale. There is such an intense demand for such forests that they industrialize the forests to meet these demands. The timber of the trees planted in the forests are used in the transportation, housing and construction sectors.

 

Expressing that there is a serious rift in the ecosystem due to the ecology policies of the government, Özbaş said: "Forest areas should be repaired and expanded in order to prevent this situation. It is needed to expand the carbon sink tree species that have biodiversity.

 

Stating that the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry does not protect agriculture and pasture lands, Özbaş emphasized that the people are fighting for their forests and added, "The more the people protect and defend, the more they are protected and defended."

 

DEFORESTATION OF KURDISTAN

 

Stating that forest areas were burned under the name of "security" in Kurdistan, Özbaş said: "For Kurdistan, deforestation always comes with the security debate. They cut down trees to establish a fortress. As the Green Left Party, they continue to fight against the ecological destruction of the ruling and capital groups. Ministry officials held meetings with the public within the scope of mining or power plant construction projects and informed the public that these projects would be beneficial to the public. We printed most of these meetings. To give an example, we won the first cases in Akbelen; however, they returned again and, in the expert reports, they made the area suitable for the thermal power plant and entered the attack process. We have been keeping watch with the villagers there for 2 years. In the past, while our friends were on watch, the gendarmerie came and threatened them."

 

Özbaş criticizes that the struggle against the ecological destruction of the government has always been insufficient, but emphasized that they will continue the struggle together with the people.