The villagers shouted from in front of the Parliament: "If they take me from my village, I will wither and die like a tree"

The people of Muğla İkizköy held a press conference in front of the Dikmen gate of the Turkish Grand National Assembly to react to the bill regarding the opening of olive groves to mining.

In the statement, the villagers chanted slogans such as “Don’t touch my air, my water, my land”, “Withdraw the mining law”, “Break the hands that touch the land”. The headman of Muğla’s İkizköy neighborhood, Nejla Işık, spoke first in the press statement.

Işık noted the following:

"From Denizli, Artvin, Çamlıhemşi, everywhere, we are one voice, one heart today and we want one thing. We do not accept this collapse law. But they stubbornly and insistently do not hear our voices; they hear but it does not suit them. We have been here since yesterday, we came as a small group. While the companies were being accepted into the TBMM, while we were walking around freely, we, the villagers, were only 6 people, were banned from entering the Parliament . Isn't this the Parliament of the people? Is it the Parliament of the companies? Is it the Parliament of the villagers, the citizens? The companies will meet with everyone, meet with the deputies, try to make their voices heard by everyone, but they are trying to silence the voices of the villagers. They will not be able to silence them. We will go inside, we will shout. We do not accept this law, no one should make a scapegoat out of us. No one should sacrifice our olives, our labor to companies, they cannot. People who do not know the value of olives, who have not grown a single tree, should not have a say here. The workers, farmers, producers are here. “They should no longer come to us with energy. There are alternatives to energy, but if the soil and water are gone, life ends. As humans, as living beings, we only see ourselves, right? We do not see any other living beings in life. We are not the rulers of this world. We are all temporary. We came from the soil, we will go to the soil, this world will not be left to anyone. But we will leave it to future generations by living and helping others live, not by destroying. This is our concern.”

"WE CAME TO PROTECT OUR LANDS IN OUR OLD STATE"

A villager named Hatice, who set out from Denizli at night, said the following:

“We came here to protect our lands as old people. Our lands are very fertile. Look, these thymes, whole wheat bread, chickpeas, lentils, millet, almonds, walnuts… The soil grows all these, but not coal. They should repeal this mining law. That’s why we came here. This is our honor, our pride, in our palms, in our calloused hands. They tore down our trees, pillaged our lands. They buried our crops, our tobacco. They also took me to court, tried me. Let’s protect the legacy, the trust that Atatürk and our ancestors left behind. Let Turkey hear our voices. ‘Oh Kema Pasha, you tied your horse to a breached stone, let’s run to Anıtkabir next to you.’ Let them hear this. Let our speeches remain as a trace. The rich's business ends, their money ends, the power of the powerful ends. Rights do not end, power ends. We came to seek rights. I would not trade a handful of my soil for a kilo of gold. Take ownership of your land. I am a republican woman since my mother's birth. The mining law should be withdrawn. They should leave our lands. We want to live."

"I BROUGHT YOU THE GOLD OF THE ORDU, OUR GOLD IS HAZELNUT"

A citizen named Cevat, who came from Ordu, showed the hazelnuts he brought in a bag and said:

“I brought you the gold of Ordu. Our gold is hazelnuts. They processed three thousand acres of mine in Ordu. They have an income of 13 million. If they plant hazelnuts here, they will make 5 or 10 times more profit and benefit the country. Even if you give 5 times the 13 million lira, we cannot clean this filth from Fatsa. This law is valid not only for the people of Muğla, but for the whole country. Where is this Türkiye? Where is the people? They will hit us all with this law.”

"PINE TREES HAVE BEEN REPLACED BY MOUNTAINS OF SAND"

Another citizen named Zeynep, who stated that she came here from a very remote mountain village in Aydın Çini, said the following:

"I come from a place with pine trees as big as its name, where pine nuts grow. My name is Zeynep. I am Zeynep, a village girl. I have no other title. I am a villager. My village is so beautiful. But 10 years ago a company came and destroyed the fairytale beauty of my village. There were such pine trees in my village that not a single ray of sunlight could penetrate, it was so lush, so majestic. We had such stream beds that you would bend over and drink the water. I spent my childhood playing with frogs in those streams, putting my feet in the water. My village was a fairytale, but now my fairytale village is gone. Mountains of sand took the place of those pine trees. Those stream beds were surrounded by rubble. Water no longer flows from the streams. The pine trees are drying up, animals are dying, we have no pastures left, we cannot do beekeeping. Our pine nuts are no longer growing.

"I DON'T WANT TO GIVE UP MY VILLAGE, MY SHEEP, MY WATER"

What will I give to my children now, when I have inherited such a fairytale village from my ancestors and grandfathers? Will I give them sand dunes, flowless streams, or non-existent water sources? What can I give them? I have nothing left. They took everything from me. We fought, we resisted. We have been fighting for 10 years. My mother and father were attacked with weapons by the company. We did not give up. Lawsuits were filed, we did not give up again and we emerged victorious from the lawsuits and we won. But if this mining law is passed, if the climate law is not withdrawn, we have nowhere to go. There is nothing left for me to do. I will have knowingly handed over my childhood to those companies. This is not only my debt, but the debt of the entire country and nation. This is our debt to our children. If we retreat, if we do not fight, if we do not resist, if we do not struggle, they will take everything we have. I do not want to give up my village, my sheep, my water, my home. If they take me from my village, think of me as a tree or a plant, I will wither and die."