Turkey: when the expansion of coal mines undermines the morale of the villagers

2023-08-26 14:27:49

Osman Arslan prepares his tea kneeling at the foot of a tree early in the morning, as a coal-fired power plant looms behind him, rising like a beast above his Turkish village on the Aegean coast.

Just returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca with his wife, the middle-aged man remembers the golden age of local agriculture, when there was no thermal power station in Soma (west from the country).

At the time, his olive trees were in better shape, assures Osman Arslan, while the smoke from his tea mixes with that of the chimneys of the power station.

Apart from the environmental consequences, the Soma coal mine was also the site of Turkey’s worst industrial disaster. In 2014, more than 300 people died in an accident at the mine, which made the industry very unpopular with the local population.

In Turkey, polluting power plants are encroaching on forests and other public spaces (AFP – BULENT KILIC)

The fact remains that, like other power stations, Soma is seeing its coal resources drastically decrease and is seeking to expand onto new land, to the chagrin of the locals.

Environmental activists and villagers clashed with the gendarmerie in southwestern Turkey’s Mugla province when a factory began cutting down trees and olive trees in search of charcoal last month.

– A human cost –

An AFP journalist toured the surroundings of five coal-fired power plants in Turkey, to find that the human cost, linked to this very polluting energy resource, is high.

“People had no choice but to work at the plant,” said Okan Goktas, a resident of the village of Yatagan (AFP – BULENT KILIC)

Olives in the Aegean town of Milas, tomatoes and beans in the Afsin plain are no longer blooming as much, while respiratory problems have become the main killer disease in Yatagan (southeast).

Here, the power plant, which is one of the oldest in the country, emits a strong smell of methane which permeates the air, and layers visible to the naked eye cover trees and gardens.

Okan Goktas, 44, who irrigates his land at the end of the followingnoon, tells us that his brother was employed in this plant like “several villagers from the surrounding area”, before retiring.

“Help (from the government, editor’s note) for agriculture is almost non-existent, so the population had no choice but to work at the plant.”

The Yenikoy power plant has an insatiable appetite, at the expense of farms and olive groves (AFP – BULENT KILIC)

While conservative President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, re-elected in May, assured that Turkey would reach the goal of zero carbon emissions by 2053, criticisms abound.

Turkey is the latest country in the Group of 20 major economies in the world to ratify the Paris Agreements, following the environment became a major issue following deadly fires in 2021.

Regardless, the power plants obtain the necessary government permits for their expansions.

– Insatiable –

The Yenikoy and Kemerkoy plants thus mowed down land where Milas olives were once grown and exported around the world.

Yusuf, who watches the Afsin mine from his balcony, says the pollution is harming local agriculture (AFP – BULENT KILIC)

According to the villagers, the Yenikoy plant buys agricultural land at reduced prices, playing on the despair of local owners who, disappointed, are convinced that they cannot do otherwise.

But the Yenikoy power plant still seems insatiable, and continues its quest for agricultural land and forests to meet its needs.

Over the past two years, several bays have been almost completely swallowed up, forcing some villagers to migrate, others to see their lives now depend on working in these factories.

According to Nail, 63, the Karabiga plant on the Aegean coast employs 600 people, including his son.

Yusuf Avci and his brother Ali took legal action once morest the Afsin mine, in vain (AFP – BULENT KILIC)

Yusuf, who watches the mine from his balcony in the town of Afsin in Kahramanmaras province (southeastern Turkey), is also a miner.

According to him, farmers are struggling to cultivate their land because of pollution from the mine.

The 48-year-old miner is convinced that the mine does not use proper air filters at night, which prompted him and his brother to take legal action.

In vain. The mandated experts concluded that there was no infringement.

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