Unfortunately, demonstrators intent on converging on Ankara from five corners of the country were prevented from reaching the capital after a week-long standoff with riot police outside Ankara. Many had been walking for two months as a part of the Great March of Anatolia, a movement sparked by anger at the hydro plans but which has come to embody growing anxiety that the country is being despoiled in the rush for growth.

From an article in the Hurriyet Daily News

"Watch wild capitalism finally reach our shores. I am talking about a vastly deregulated economy based on consumption, waste and easy benefits, in which just a handful of men take the decisions. The well-named “Crazy Project” launched by the prime minister is the perfect example of this state of affairs. Thank God, civic reactions, awareness and awareness against the attack are building up every day. The Great March of Anatolia means millions of steps in this direction. And naturally, politicians as the main perpetrators behind this nightmare are left off the track. The plunder is not an issue in the election campaign.

The march began from seven different directions on April 2. The Thrace convoy setting out from the province of Edirne, the northwest tip of the country will reach Istanbul on Monday and will hit the road during the week. A press communique will be read in front of Istanbul’s Galatasaray High School at 10 a.m. For those who are interested in joining the march, visit vermeyoz.net. Convoys will converge in Ankara around May 21. The march has 14 wide-ranging demands against the environmental and cultural plunder. Once in Ankara, tents will be set up in front of Parliament and will remain there until the demands are heard. The plunder now causes international concerns and reactions are getting organized in front of Turkish representations abroad.

14 demands

The model for development that treats nature as a commodity must be abandoned, “Mother Nature’s right to live” must be protected by the new constitution. Based on the principle that “individuals should be able to feed themselves in the lands they were born,” arrangements that prevent migration of rural populations to large cities and support traditional lifestyles must be implemented. All hydroelectric power plants and dams projects that threaten our rural livelihoods, our cultural heritage and biological diversity and that are motivated by a thirst for profit must be stopped. Work must start immediately to recover our natural habitats from the destructive effects of such practices so far.

The draft of the 2B Act, which paves the way for wiping out of our forests, must be canceled immediately, and legislative action to privatize forests must be stopped. Mining practices that disregard protected areas, agricultural lands or living beings must be stopped; all permissions given without any consideration of the consequences of these practices on our ecosystems must be canceled. Erroneous agricultural policies that result in soils becoming infertile, driving rural populations to poverty as their main source of agricultural income and excessive use of water resources must be abandoned. All agricultural practices must take the balance of nature into account and “the right crop in the right place” principle must be adopted. The use of hybrid seeds, crops with genetically modified organisms and any chemicals in agriculture, which are threats to all living beings, must be stopped. Projects threatening our cultural heritage, such as in Hasankeyf, which we have inherited from civilizations that lived on these lands before us, must be stopped immediately. These historical sites do not belong only to us, but to all humanity; therefore they must be protected with care and projects to preserve them for future generations must start immediately.

Highway, bridge and mass housing projects planned without consideration of their social and ecologic costs that will result in larger waves of migration to the cities, must be stopped. Rail transport that has a lower carbon footprint must be developed and expanded. Investments for thermal and nuclear power plants, which a new one is added to existing ones everyday and which are indisputably harmful to nature, must be stopped immediately. Environmental Impact Assessment reports prepared by private consulting firms that are financed by power companies that cause damages to nature, with the permission of the Ministry of Forestry and Environment, and Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations, which allow this to happen, must be cancelled immediately. Any project disregarding the delicate balance of nature, the conscience of the general public, the expertise of nongovernmental organizations, NGOs, and decisions of local habitants must not be approved. The current Environment and Biodiversity Protection Act that allows commercial investments in all protected areas must be withdrawn and the Renewable Energy Act must be cancelled immediately.

The status of existing protected areas must be raised and key natural sites must be declared as protected areas for the preservation of biodiversity. “The Polluter pays” principle and its practice that allows private companies and public sector to destroy nature must be abandoned; legal arrangements must be made to give severe penalties to those who harm nature.

The organizational and administrative structure that congregates the State Hydraulic Works, or DSI, as an executive body with its investments that interfere with the balance of nature and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which is responsible for the protection of environment must be changed immediately. Instead of defending private companies, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry must fulfill its actual duty, which is to protect the environment..."