Locals in Turkey’s western province of Çanakkale resist ongoing deforestation attempts in the dam basin of Atikhisar. The deforestation aims to pave way for a gold mine project of a company despite a state council decision against it. The Communist Youth of Turkey (TKG), the youth wing of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) protested the massacre of trees in the region, which holds Çanakkale’s only drinking water basin and irrigation area.
TKP members entered the tree cutting area on Feb. 22 in Çanakkale’s Kirazlı Village and removed signboards indicating coordinates of trees to be cut.
Çanakkale is a region that has drawn capitalist exploitation due to its nature, underground treasures and ground sources for many years. Multiple mining projects were forcibly cancelled thanks to the resistance of the people of Çanakkale, but some of the companies operating these projects have unfortunately started their activities in the region.
In its statement, the Çanakkale branch of TKP said that "The relevant public institutions, which have not stopped the cutting of trees upon the request of the company despite the annulment decision of the state council, play a major role in the massacre of trees in Çanakkale."
Stating that Turkey’s communists would resist the darkness engulfing the country, it said, "Our symbolic protest, with us removing company’s signboards indicating the coordinates of trees to be cut, is only the beginning of an anti-imperialist struggle spearheaded by the communists in the 50th year of the driving of NATO’s 6th Fleet into the sea by [the Turkish revolutionary figure] Deniz Gezmiş and his friends."
"In 2018, we will make continuing operations in this territory unbearable for the imperialists, their companies, local collaborators and their capital, and we will remove only the signboards of the plundering companies but also will drive them from the forests of Çanakkale," the TKP concluded in its statement.
