Attacks against protesters with police tear gas,Artvin Cerattepe and Genya mine, February 2016.EJAtlas. All rights reserved.Environmental rights are now
widely recognized by many constitutions throughout the world. The 1982
constitution of Turkey also recognizes a right to health and a balanced
environment (article 56). Nevertheless, the application of this right on the
ground has not been free of contestation, particularly when big projects with opportunities
for vast profit are at stake. In fact, the application of environmental rights
is becoming one of the most incendiary battlegrounds of the twenty first
century, where the rules of capitalism are most urgently on course to be
modified.
Currently, the Artvin-Cerattepe
mine case, the biggest environmental legal case in Turkey, constitutes one of
these battlefields, where the lives and livelihoods of many are being put in
danger by copper and gold mine prospecting in the region. During the final hearing
of the case on September 19, the litigant lawyers demanded recusal and
abandoned the court-room amid extensive security precautions.
“We are under immense pressure,”
claimed the legal representative in the case of Bedrettin Kalin. The movement
against the controversial mine construction has been going on for more than
twenty years now. Despite several court decisions ordering the abandonment of
the mine project based on the right to a healthy, balanced environment, the
company was able to obtain new environmental impact assessment reports (EIA) and
reclaim the project.
Hence, the case is significant
from many angles; the ability of the company to obtain a new EIA every time,
the inability of the Turkish legal structure to put an end to the project, and
the everlasting determination of the local people involved in mobilization
against it. Cerattepe’s history of struggle lasting for more than twenty
years and the fact that the mine is still not operational makes the battle a
landmark environmental case for analysts.
Located 30 km inland from the
Black Sea, Artvin is a city in the north-eastern part of Turkey with a
population of around 168, 370. It is part of the Caucasus Ecoregion, one of the
most biologically rich and culturally diverse zones in the world. It is home to
1,268 different species, 199 of which are endemic to the area. Both due to its
rich biodiversity and unique natural beauty, Artvin has enormous eco-tourism
potential, comparable only to the Swiss and French Alps. Nevertheless, it only
has one, neglected skiing area, the Kafkasor Recreation Zone.
The area is very rich in raw
materials, including gold, silver, zinc and copper reserves. Field explorations
at the site were launched by the General Directorate of Mineral Research and
Exploration (MTA) in 1986. In its concluding report, the MTA suggested that no
economically significant source was detected in the region. In 1988, however,
Öner Gürses, a close relative of an engineer working at MTA, obtained the
preliminary exploration rights in the region for a very low cost, around 200
Turkish liras. A year later, he sold the exploration license to Cominco, a
Canadian company, for an amount around 6 trillion Turkish liras.
Initial objections were raised
against Cominco during its exploration of the site in 1994. The company drilled
around 560 wells in the region, and during this process, local water was
contaminated by heavy metals and hazardous chemicals. Consequently, a few cows
died, and samples taken from the cows to be investigated were then lost. This
incident raised suspicion among the local people. Cominco responded to these
concerns by organizing a panel on gold mining, together with the Municipality
of Artvin. Despite these efforts, the locals became even more worried about the
environmental consequences of gold mining after this conference.
Subsequently, in 1995, the Green Artvin Association was established. The
Association invited several academics to Artvin in order to carry out a
scientific investigation of the area and also to reassure the public about the
effects of gold mining.
Green Artvin Association held its
first demonstrations against the mine in 1997. The group collected around
10,000 signatures on petitions prepared in 1997 and again in 2002. Finally, in
2005, a lawsuit was filed against the project, and in 2008, Rize Administrative
Tribunal revoked the mining license. The biggest achievement for the movement
came in 2009, when the Council of State nullified the licenses.
Nevertheless, in 2011, the
Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources modified the mining law again. The new
law enabled the Ministry to grant a new operation license to the Cerattepe
mine, along with 1,342 other mining sites in Turkey. In the tendering process,
Ozaltın company obtained the license and transferred it to Etibakır company
owned by Cengiz Construction Company. Subsequently, protests were sparked
again. In 2013, another lawsuit was filed against the company by 281 people.
Until the Rize Administrative
Tribunal annulled the company’s EIA in January 2015, the protestors prevented
the company from cutting trees and starting to transport equipment and trucks
to the site. Following the decision of the Rize Administrative Tribunal, the
company carried the case before the Council of State for appeal. However, at
the same, the company obtained another EIA before the appeal decision. The
Council of State approved the order of the local administrative court to
nullify the licenses of the company. However, that decision of the Council of
State stemmed from the previous environmental impact assessment report of the
company. Therefore, this time, local people from Artvin filed another lawsuit
against the company, bringing together 751 participants and 61 attorneys,
making this the biggest environmental legal case in Turkey’s history. They kept
surveillance over Cerattepe for 245 days by staying in a small wooden cottage
until police intervened. Currently, the road to Cerattepe is blocked by the
police. The decision over the recusal demand is scheduled to be announced in a
month.
The Artvin-Cerattepe struggle
clearly shows the inability of the Turkish legal system to be a forum through
which the environmental rights of people can be implemented. In addition to the
incompetence of the Turkish legal system, this case illustrates how twenty
first century power politics is being played out in the arena of environmental
projects. Actually, famous power politics concepts of international relations
no longer apply to state-to-state relations. In today`s world, where capital is
globalized, power politics is the concept defining the battle between
globalized capital and activists with transnational civic values. Who will win?
It will be the activists – but only if the world stops praising capital in good
time.