“We already have a number of people who want to sue, and there will certainly be more by the end of the week,” reports village leader Nejla Işık, as usual combative, on the phone. “They won’t get rid of us that quickly.” But not too many activists share the optimism of the long-time campaigner against brown coal mining on the southwest Aegean coast. After years of disputes, the state now wants to expropriate almost 700 owners, some of whose olive groves are in the way of the excavator. These include the olive plantations of the villages of Akbelen and İkizköy, which are located throughout Türkiye for their fight against brown coal mining have become known.
The brown coal is stored in a classic hilly Aegean landscape in the hinterland of Bodrum, the metropolis for luxury tourism in Turkey par excellence. While the oligarchs park their oversized luxury yachts in the port of Bodrum, just a hundred kilometers away, three ancient coal-fired power plants are polluting the air, all of which are powered by particularly harmful lignite.
In order to stop the above-ground lignite mining from taking up space, environmental activists from all over Turkey set up a protest camp on the edge of the village of Akbelen more than five years ago, from which they supported the villagers in their fight against the mining excavators. In the end The camp was then evacuated by the gendarmerie after three yearsthe forest near Akbelen was cut down and space was made for the excavators.
After years of disputes, the state now wants to expropriate almost 700 olive grove owners
After the forest, it is now the turn of the olive groves of a total of seven villages. Olive trees have actually been a particularly protected cultural asset in Turkey since the 1930s. They must not be cut down.
In the “national interest”
With a With the new mining law, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan undermined the protection of olive groves a good two years ago. If there is a special national interest, they can now be cut down. After the candidate of the ruling AKP party in Milas, the district town responsible for the threatened villages, had initially ensured that the new law was not applied in his district before the local elections in March 2024, the time has now come: the expropriation of the olive groves has been ordered.
The opponents of lignite mining are now trying to set up a class action lawsuit against the expropriations, but so far only around 50 of the 679 people affected have joined. There are other lawsuits, but they are primarily aimed at increasing the compensation that those affected should receive.
Not everyone in the region is against open-cast brown coal mining. A number of locals work there and don’t want to lose their jobs. So the day is approaching when the olive plantations of Akbelen and İkizköy, some of which are centuries old, will… dirtiest form of energy generation will fall victim.
Wind power lagging behind
There are already many hills on the Aegean coast Wind turbines, the number of which could be expanded considerablyto deliver clean energy at far lower costs than the old lignite-fired power plants in Milas, Ören and Yatağan can. But the three power plants belong to two of Turkey’s largest industrial holdings, Limak and IC Holding, both of which have been in the president’s favored circle for many years when it comes to large orders and subsidies.
All three power plants have lucrative contracts with the state that promise them profits for several years to come. The percentage of renewable energies in electricity generation in Turkey is constantly increasing, but the government does not want to do without coal-fired power plants and is planning to do so Expansion of nuclear energy. The first block of the first nuclear power plant on the Mediterranean coast near Mersin, which is being built by the Russians, is scheduled to go online next year, and two more nuclear power plants on the Black Sea are being planned. With the nuclear power plants and the new mining law, the government wants to boost domestic energy production in order to reduce dependence on oil and gas imports.