The Chief wants Energy, the AKP nationalizes: "Rush" massacre of pomegranate gardens

İlayda SORKU

Urgent expropriation orders have been issued for the planned solar power plant in the village of Çaltı in Antalya 's Kumluca district. Çaltı villagers have reacted to the expropriation orders.

A decision was made in 2021 that "an environmental impact assessment (EIA) is not required" for the solar power plant project run by Reis Energy. The area to be urgently expropriated for the project, which was approved with an investment cost of 20 million TL, includes approximately 70 decares of pomegranate and olive groves.

The solar power plant is planned as an auxiliary source for the Dereköy Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), which has been criticized by the local people for a long time.

"WHAT WILL THE VILLAGERS DO IF THEIR LANDS ARE TAKEN AWAY?"

Villagers stated that their agricultural production has already been harmed by energy projects in the area and that hasty expropriation would completely destroy the village's livelihood. Çaltı Village Headman İsmail Yavuz stated that they are preparing to file a lawsuit to overturn the hasty expropriation decisions. He said:

People earn their living from the pomegranate and olive groves on these lands. What will the villagers do if these lands are taken from them? They have nowhere to go; many of them have children they are putting through school. The families who will be victimized are now preparing to file lawsuits. Some people are taking people's livelihoods to keep capital happy. As the headman of Çaltı, I am, of course, against the project.

The Ministry has approved it many times.

Meanwhile, the proposed solar power plant project isn't the first Reis Energy project to spark controversy in the region. Local resident Erdal Elgınöz noted that the ongoing struggle for the Dereköy hydroelectric power plant has been ongoing for over 10 years.

Elgınöz, who stated that they started a fight against the company's projects in 2015, explained the process as follows:

"Eight hydroelectric power plants were planned for the region, and we were able to prevent four, but unfortunately, only four were built. The projects came one after another, leaving a 70-kilometer area completely untouched. The Dereköy Hydroelectric Power Plant falls in the middle of all of this. In the first project, we stated that the water in the region was insufficient. We consulted with experts, and measurements were taken. We filed lawsuits based on the expert reports. We filed four lawsuits against the Ministry's approvals, and we won all of them. However, with each cancellation or stay of execution decision, the company re-applied with copy-and-paste EIA files from other projects. Despite our stay of execution, construction continued. The Ministry, in turn, approved them again after each of our legal victories. This is how the project was completed, without respecting the law."

IT WILL COLLAPSE ON THE LAND

Elgınöz, stating that the power plant hasn't operated efficiently for the past 10 years due to a lack of water, said, "We've already proven with expert reports that it can't produce enough energy. When the company saw that the plant was inefficient, they said, 'We can't make money, let's at least build a solar power plant.' There are pomegranate orchards surrounding the plant, and these are the villagers' only source of income. Knowing that if the company builds a solar power plant elsewhere, it will have to pay transmission fees, so it wants to expropriate the pomegranate orchards, which are the people's livelihood. It's encroaching on citizens' land. The local people have already suffered the damages of the hydropower plant over the past 10 years. Yields have plummeted, and the pomegranates aren't as plentiful as they once were."

He grew up with the AKP

The project is owned by Reis Energy, a Samsun-based company owned by Reis Holding. Founded in 1980 by Fevzi Reis, the company began its commercial operations in the fuel sector and later expanded into significant investments in the automotive, tobacco, and finally, energy sectors. Reis, who declared his support for then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's presidential candidacy in 2014, saying, "There will never be another Erdoğan," issued a statement of support for the hydroelectric power plant (HES) project. On October 4, the Presidency issued an urgent expropriation order for 112 parcels of agricultural land, totaling more than 700,000 square meters, along the valley.

Additionally, the Çekerek Regulator and Hydroelectric Power Plant project, constructed by Reis Energy on the borders of Zile in Tokat and Çekerek and Aydıncık in Yozgat, was completed while lawsuits filed by local villagers were ongoing. According to the report of the court-appointed expert team in the lawsuit filed against the project, the Çekerek River Valley was effectively transformed into a canal, effectively dividing wildlife and the villagers' agricultural production. The company most recently made headlines with its launch of a hydroelectric power plant project in the protected İkizdere Valley of Rize in 2023.