Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has issued an amendment in the Official Gazette on January 25, paving the way for capitalists to plunder agricultural lands in Turkey
The "Regulation on the Protection, Usage and Planning of Agricultural Estates" has been changed following a decision published in the Official Gazette. Agricultural lands can now be plundered by capitalists for road and energy investments with only 4 out of 9 votes of the Soil Protection Council.
With the amendment, four votes from a total of nine Soil Protection Council members will be enough for agricultural lands to be zoned for construction. In the former regulation, decisions could only be taken after at least 6 votes came from the Soil Protection Council.
Agronomists said that the AKP government’s regulation on agricultural lands will not only decrease the country's rural lands but will also lead to a decrease in agricultural production and to the destruction of pasturelands and livestock farming. As agricultural estate decreases, Turkey will produce less and as a result will have to import more wheat, barley and animal products. More farmers will migrate from rural areas to cities and thus unemployment will increase even more, according to experts.
Hüseyin Demirtaş, Head of the Turkish Agriculturalists' Association, said that with the new regulation, the AKP government has entirely destroyed the already weak democratic structure of the Council.
Stating that public representatives will now be able to arbitrarily open fertile agricultural lands to investment, Demirtaş underlined, ‘‘If the authorities made such a critical change in the legal regulation concerning Turkey’s agricultural future, it means that the needs of a pro-government investor are being met.’’
Since the AKP came to power in 2002, it has implemented anti-labour, anti-production and pro-import policies as a result of their promotion of neoliberal policies. Instead of protecting and developing agricultural policies and small farmers, the Turkish government has always supported big capitalist farmers and agricultural companies.
According to the data, the share of agriculture in the total employment in Turkey was 35% in 2002, while this rate decreased to 22% in 2016 under the AKP government. The number of people employed in the agricultural sector was 7.5 million in 2002, it decreased to 5.3 million in 2016, which means that more than 2 million members of the workforce have been excluded from agriculture within 15 years. The number of registered farmers also decreased to 600.000 during the tenure of the AKP government.
