Everything is being sacrificed for the mine in İkizköy
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Fighting continues in the Akbelen Forest near İkizköy , Milas, Muğla, where an olive grove was cleared for coal mining in a morning raid. Villagers defending their trees and land were supported by Muğla Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ahmet Aras, Milas Mayor Fevzi Topuz, Muğla CHP Member of Parliament Cumhur Uzun, and activists from İkizköy, Karacahisar, Çamköy, Milas, and Bodrum.
İkizköy Village Headman Nejla Işık said, “We have been suffering here for years. We kept watch over Akbelen Forest for months, for years, but greedy companies disregarded us all and cut down the forest in six days in 2023. They thought the villagers would abandon the struggle. We were devastated, worn out, and saddened, but we still started the struggle not just for the forest, but with the declaration, ‘We will not give up our villages, our agricultural lands, our olive trees to the mine.’ We will not turn back from this path.”
LIFE IS DYINGMuğla Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ahmet Aras stated that the destruction inflicted on İkizköy amounts to sacrificing everything for the sake of something. Aras said, “It means sacrificing everything—history, life, agriculture, water—to this. This is our objection. This energy source was recognized as having a specific history, and permits were issued accordingly, but these permits were repeatedly extended, and most recently, it was privatized. The government enacted the necessary legal regulations to ensure continued energy production. Coal will be mined once and destroyed, and grass will never grow on this land again. Life is dying here. As long as uncontrolled mining continues here, the region's habitats will be threatened. People here are trying to protect themselves and their land.”
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