In Turkey’s Akbelen Forest, villagers and environmental activists are fighting to protect centuries-old trees from a massive coal mine. The forest is not only their home—it also provides many with their livelihoods. The Erdogan government has denounced the protests as marginal and anti-development, sending security forces to back up Limak Holding, the major Turkish coal conglomerate behind the project. The Real News reports from Akbelen Forest.

Producer: Murat Bay
Associate Producer and Translation: Daniel Thorpe
Videographer: Murat Bay
Video editors: Daniel Thorpe and Leo Erhardt
Special thanks: Kazim Kizil, Diyar Saracoglu

Transcript

Protester: Look! Look! Can you see this? How can you do this? 

Daniel Thorpe (narrator): Akbelen forest, western Turkey. Local villagers and environmental activists try to stop the expansion of a coal mine. Just three months after strongman President Erdoğan was re-elected, people flocked here from all over Turkey to try to save the remaining woodland. The protest is a symbol of a wider struggle to protect the environment in Turkey, from companies which often enjoy close relations with the government. The coal giant Limak Holding is a typical example. President Erdoğan dismissed the protesters as ‘marginal’, opposed to the country’s economic development. Despite a nation-wide outcry, the forest clearing continues with the protection of the Turkish security forces.

Protesters: “Akbelen is everywhere! 

The resistance is everywhere!”

Protester: Anyone with a conscience would not obey these orders. We are the ones who are paying  for the clothes they are wearing.

Leyla Ciyansen (protester): This forest is our lives, our oxygen, our source of income. It’s shameful! They shouldn’t sit in its shade!

Protesters: “The day will come, the tides will turn! The government will answer to its people!”

Sermit Cetin (protester): Leave us alone! Leave our nature and our history alone! Get away from our home! That’s it, I’m not saying anything else.

Ayse Ayev (protester): How long does it take for a tree to grow? I cried when I saw this. Isn’t this a sin? Does one destroy nature for money? They shouldn’t. 

Halime Saman (environmental activist): Since the 1980s, Turkey rapidly went through a liberal privatization process. Under the flag of industrialization  and development our nature and our resources were turned into commodities. 

Halil Ibrahim Demir (local farmer): They started cutting the trees at 6 in the morning. We revolted and tried to stop them. We pitched our tents here. They are saying the court decided in our favor and we can go on if there’s coal under the soil. We don’t want to give up our nature. This is also our source of income. We lost our pine trees but we will continue to resist.

Protester: I don’t want to die of cancer! Why are they cutting down these trees? This is our soil, our land! Arrest or kill me, I don’t care. We want to live in dignity. Long live Akbelen!

Ortac Yakar (local farmer): I have a grandson. Every time I see the Gendarmerie I tremble with fear of the thought of sending him to his military service. I see enemies in them, not friends!

Necla Isik (local farmer): Akbelen is everywhere! The resistance is everywhere!

Protesters: “Murderer Limak piss off from Akbelen!”

Halime Saman (environmental activist): Why are you shooting rubber bullets at us? We don’t carry rocks, clubs or weapons. All we have is love in our hearts for nature. Do you see that as a weapon?

Selma Gurkan (Chairwoman of Labour Party, EMEP): The job of the Ministry of Interior is to provide safety. But here they sent the law enforcement against people protecting their nature, their land, their air and their water.

Halime Saman (environmental activist): The army protected the company. For the benefit of that company they turned against the people. 

Tulka (student): They arrested me as I tried to pull my friend away. They were hitting and punching me as they threw me on the ground. They were swearing at me, called me a traitor to the homeland and kept on assaulting me throughout the way. They are trying to intimidate us with arrests and oppression but the more they attack the more we unite. They can’t break our will to resist this way. We will continue to fight for the freedom of the earth and the animals, for a vegan, ecological, classless and hierarchy-free world. They can’t break us.

Daniel Thorpe (narrator): The resistance in Akbelen continues. Though most of the trees have been felled, protesters still hope to obstruct the mining of coal, and save at least the soil where their forest stood.

For years, the working class of Türkiye has been caught in the vice-grip of a global economic downturn and a government hostile to their interests. Now, with presidential elections coming up on May 14, speculation is rising that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan could be unseated. On May Day, thousands of workers mobilized in Istanbul, limiting themselves to the outskirts of the city after more central locations were shut down in anticipation of protests. TRNN reports from Istanbul, speaking directly to union organizers, members of Parliament, and more on the condition of the Turkish working class and the prospects the upcoming election offers.

This story, with the support of the Bertha Foundation, is part of The Real News Network’s Workers of the World series, telling the stories of workers around the globe building collective power and redefining the future of work on their own terms.

Producer: Daniel Thorpe
Videographers: Murat Bay and Daniel Thorpe
Video editors: Daniel Thorpe, Leo Erhardt and Murat Bay

Transcript

Protestors: Long live May Day!

Daniel Thorpe (narrator): In Istanbul, despite the authorities’ ban on protests in Taksim Square, workers and activists refused to stay silent on May Day. The police responded with force, arresting 184 people who tried to reach the square.

Protestors: Leave our comrades alone!
We are going to Taksim Square.
Long live May Day!
We are not giving up Taksim Square.
The dictators will fall.
Your palaces will be demolished.
The people will prevail.

Police: Come!
Get out of here!
Go!

Daniel Thorpe (narrator): But the spirit of protest could not be quelled. Tens of thousands of people gathered on the outskirts of Istanbul, organized by their workers’ unions and political parties. Their message was clear: they are fed up with deteriorating working conditions, the cost of living crisis, and they want change.

Protestors: Taksim Square is everywhere,
the revolt is everywhere!
Long live May Day!
Women, life, freedom!

Tuana Oğuz, University student: With this economic and cost of living crisis life is really difficult as a female university student. That’s why I’m here on May Day, to defend my rights and demands.

Protestors: You will never march alone!

Mehmet Kervancı, Unemployed: I came here today to show our strength as organized students and workers. To show that we’re a force against this system.

İbrahim Ercan, Metal factory worker: This capitalist order impoverishes all. Our wages are disappearing with inflation. 

Hassan Karakazan, Pensioner – Revolutionary Workers’ Union: We are being crushed under the economic conditions. Especially the retired. 

Mehmet Kervancı, Unemployed: The cost of housing and food is really high. Life is difficult in Turkey if you’re a student or unemployed. 

Protestors: Either all together or none of us!

Musa Piroğlu, MP – Democratic Peoples’ Party: This country became hell on earth for workers. We have the highest rate of workplace homicides in the world and the second highest in Europe. Slave-like working conditions became normalized. Most of our people… One moment, let me have a look what’s going on there. I’ll have a look then come back.

Protestor: How can you arrest people on May Day? We are not terrorists or murderers.

Musa Piroğlu, MP – Democratic Peoples’ Party: You are blocking us on May Day. You are trying to stop people from joining. This is a sign that you’re done! 

Protestor: Why are you attacking people for no reason?

Musa Piroğlu, MP – Democratic Peoples’ Party: They are blocking my way as an MP. Disperse finally! That’s all it takes. You saw what just happened. This country became a police state. People struggle to breathe under all forms of police brutality. This May Day is also a gasp for air. We’ve come to the end of this. The election is coming up, but this is about more than just an election. The people are increasingly angry. The government is ready to do anything but as you saw this anger is ready to crush everything.

Protestors: For justice!
For democracy!
For peace!
For the struggle!
We give our word!

Hassan Karakazan, Pensioner – Revolutionary Workers’ Union: They say our union is not legal. They constantly close it. A society without union and organization is doomed to perish, to be chained.

İbrahim Ercan, Metal factory worker: Our rights were never given to us. We fought for them. Without the unions we’ll live under a capitalist order that does as it wishes. 

Daniel Thorpe (narrator): As Turkey prepares for the upcoming elections on May 14th, 2023, President Erdogan is facing his toughest electoral battle yet. After 21 years in power, polls suggest that he does not have the support of the majority of the electorate, with many voters disillusioned with his leadership.

Züleyha Gülüm, MP – Democratic Peoples’ Party: There’s an important election coming up [14 May]. This election will be about freedom, justice and labor against oppression. For a long time, Turkey has been governed by an anti-democratic ruler.

İbrahim Ercan, Metal factory worker: If we carry on under this government everything will just get worse. 

Kaan Taktak,High school student: I have nothing good to say about this person [President Erdoğan]. He destroyed my youth and took every penny I had. I hope this election won’t be another disappointment and this time we push him off his throne. 

Daniel Thorpe (narrator): The May Day protests in Istanbul were a reflection of this discontent. Workers and activists from all walks of life came together to demand better working conditions, greater economic stability, and an end to Erdogan’s long rule. Despite the police crackdown, their voices were heard loud and clear.

The conservative AKP government of Turkey has repeatedly banned all Pride marches since 2014. AKP politicians—including president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—and pro-government media continue to target and marginalize the LGBTQ community, calling them “perverts” and a threat to Turkish and Islamic values. Nevertheless, LGBTQ activists attempted to organize a Pride parade in the central Taksim neighborhood in the capital city of Istanbul on Sunday, June 26, and police met them with tear gas and rubber bullets, arresting hundreds in the process. Journalists, videographers, and TRNN contributors Daniel Thorpe and Murat Bay report from Istanbul.

Pre-Production/Studio: Daniel Thorpe, Murat Bay
Post-Production: Cameron Granadino

TRANSCRIPT

Demonstrators (crowd): We won’t shut up! We aren’t afraid! We won’t obey! We won’t shut up! We aren’t afraid! We won’t obey!

Gözde: I came here today to say we are together, we exist, and we are everywhere.

Murat: Yes.

Gözde: But we couldn’t come together. We couldn’t reach each other… If only we could have. This is a really sad thing.

Demonstrator (solo): Could we talk with the police officer in charge here?

Murat: Everywhere we went there were police, barricades and questioning.

Off-camera speaker: What are they afraid of?

Gözde: The truth is I don’t know. But we exist. We are here. We’ll be here tomorrow as well and the day after, on the streets.

Demonstrator (solo): We’re here, we’re queer, we won’t disappear! 

Murat: Maybe they are afraid because we show them the reality. Maybe it’s because of their beliefs.

Anti-LGBTQ demonstrator (solo): God is great!

Demonstrator (solo): Piss off!

Anti-LGBTQ demonstrator (solo): You don’t have a place in this land!

Murat: Certain walls have to be demolished, and certain realities have to be accepted in this day and age. The world is a beautiful place, everyone can live here together.

Demonstrator (solo): You will never be able to stop desire!

Gözde: We’ll join next year as well.

Murat: Yes.

Gözde: I hope that time we’ll be able to gather all together.

Murat: And hold a happy march.