ECO-TURKEY

People of Araklı: No to colonial mining!

Local people gathered in the Karadere Valley of the Araklı district of Trabzon and reacted to the gold mine exploration efforts launched in Erikli Plateau.

The people, who stated that gold drilling had been carried out many times before in the plateau and its surroundings, reacted to the destruction of nature. The citizens, who marched to the area where the drilling efforts were carried out with the slogan "The plateaus are ours, they will remain ours" and opened banners reading "No to colonial mining" and "Cancel the tenders", made a press statement there.

'They dug lots of holes in the plateau for drilling'

The President of the Karadere Valley and and Plateaus' Nature Wildlife Protection Association of Araklı stated that if the gold mine was opened, the soil and water would be polluted and living spaces would be destroyed. He spoke as follows:

"Until 2019, machines were drilling holes everywhere. Drilling was done by drilling holes at a depth of approximately 250-300 meters and we all see how nature has been destroyed.

From now on, maybe the place we are in will fall to the level of 300 meters or 500 meters below, which we call the Pazarcık region. Excavations will continue until we reach the vein in an area of at least one kilometer in diameter. Our plateau will turn into a pile of pits and rubble. Not a tree, not this beauty, nothing will remain.

NO to colonial mining!   The tenders should be   canceled!

'This land belongs to the people living on it'

The president stated that the license tender was held and the company was preparing to apply for the EIA report, but they would not give permission to the company and would fight until the end, and said, "Hopefully, we will prevent the EIA. We expect the state's mind to give up on this. We will fight as much as we can to leave this legacy that our grandfathers and ancestors left to us to our children. These lands belong to us, we are the real owners of this place, we are the people living on this land. The approval of the citizens must be obtained before any work is done. Our approval was not obtained, it was not requested. They will come and chase us away from our plateaus and lands. They will build poison depots, cyanide depots, waste depots here.

We will definitely not allow this. Our plateau is an area where hundreds of bears, wolves, deer and dozens of mammals live. We will not allow these areas and so many animal species to be destroyed here. We cannot ignore these animals.”

Miners are prohibited   from entering   Erikli plateau!

Mr. Hacihasanoğlu, one of the locals, said after the press release that they will fight until their deaths for the future of their animals and children.

Ms. Aygün said, “These are inherited from our grandfathers and ancestors, we will not leave them to anyone, we are the guards of this place day and night.”

Ms. Civelek said, “We are people who love nature, animals, vegetation and insects, we do not want such a thing in our nature. “We do not want our trees to be uprooted. We do not accept this and we will not allow it,” he said. After the press statement and march, saplings were planted in the areas where drilling was done.

(Source: Yeşil Günebakan)