The final point in the 'betrayal' and 'being deceived' process

“We betrayed Istanbul... FETÖ deceived us... Assad deceived us... The PKK deceived us...”

These statements are remarks made by the political authority governing Turkey in the recent past... 

Why would you betray something right before your eyes, or how can someone deceive you? 

Either you prioritize your personal interests above everything else... Or your team is weak, or the “sharks” of the economy or politics are playing you like a puppet... 

Why am I reminding you of these? Because what I really want to explain is that Turkey has entered a new spiral of betrayal and deception... This time the situation is very dangerous... This time we are facing a process that could drag the country into a “civil war”...

What would you do if someone showed up at your door with a piece of paper they call a “license” and tried to enter your village, your vineyard, or your garden—the land you have been farming for centuries and call your ancestral soil? What would you think if someone set their sights on the forests, mountains, pastures, and plateaus in your province, district, or village and started digging in with bulldozers and excavators? 

What do you expect from people facing such a situation... 

Legitimate government

In his work “Second Treatise of Government,” John Locke states that since the primary purpose of creating a political society is the protection of individuals, a government that cannot protect the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals and causes them harm is, according to him, a government that has “lost its legitimacy.” According to Locke, a legitimate government can only be one that guarantees the right to life of the governed, ensures their freedoms, protects their property, and, in short, is based on the consent of the citizens...

The masters whose villagers are under blockade are doing politics in Ankara. The ruling party deputies cannot lift a finger. Nothing comes out of their mouths other than shy, embarrassed whispers in doorways saying, “Our hearts are burning too, but...” As for the opposition, except for a few deputies who are aware of the situation, most still cannot fully see the picture. Or they are involved in other calculations... Let’s not scare off the capital, let’s not offend them...

My brother, the villagers of this country are under blockade. The forests, plateaus, agricultural lands, and villages of this country are under attack. They are shouting “Help!” and asking for assistance. What problem could a country have that is more important than this? If you don't have villagers, if you don't have agriculture, if you don't have farmers, if you don't have water, you don't have a country! 

Each of them has designated a region. 10 thousand decares, 20 thousand decares, whatever they can get their hands on, they have arranged some professionals whom we could call “professional prostitutes” to plunder that place. The relevant institutions of the state, which should protect its citizens, their villages, their vineyards, their gardens, their pastures, their plateaus, and their forests, are instead competing with each other to act as ushers for the looting and plunder.

Damaging the plateau is not a “crime” 

The latest and most urgent example: Perşembe Plateau in Ordu... A geography with no equal in the world... It draws attention with its meanders, fish, history, culture, and tourism... World-famous tourism magazines publish articles saying, “You must see it”... Yet those who govern Turkey are issuing licenses to some people right next to it, saying, “Go ahead and do cyanide gold mining”... Citizens are reacting, opposing it by saying, “Don't do it, don't”... They are keeping watch, they are resisting... 

Ordu Governor Muammer Erol comes out and defends the company that wants to plunder the Perşembe Plateau... Stating that gold exploration work is being carried out on the Perşembe Plateau, the Governor says, “It is a crime to stop or damage authorized activities.” “Everyone can express their opinion, but drilling activities cannot be stopped,” he says. 

AKP Deputy Mustafa Hamarat comes out and defends the mining licenses and drilling in the GREEN ORDU geography, the land of hazelnuts, by saying, “We generated 582 million TL in revenue”... He accuses those who are struggling to protect Green Ordu, its vineyards, gardens, and plateaus, of being involved in “fifth column” activities, meaning they are puppets of foreign countries... 

Shame on you... 

It is a crime for a citizen to want to protect their plateau, but it is not a crime to dump the toxic waste water of a mine into streams, as in Giresun-Çatalağaç... If the citizens didn't go out and react to the toxic water flowing openly, the relevant state institutions wouldn't even care... It is a crime for a citizen to protect their plateau, forest, and water resources, but it is not a crime for the mountains of Giresun to be torn to pieces...  

Despite all the negativity, endless crises, price hikes, hardships, and shortages in the country, millions of people who have been able to survive and hold onto life thanks to clean air, clean water, and clean soil are now being given the message, “These are no longer available either.” Without exception, all our regions are being turned into chemical centers where what is called mining is applied, but which are actually wild neoliberal policies.

Suffering villagers

Similar games are being staged in every corner of Turkey... Suffering villagers, producers, and citizens trying to resist... In the villages of Terziler and Serçiler in Çanakkale, in Bayramiç, in Lapseki, in İvrindi, in Milas-İkizköy, in Latmos, and on Murat Mountain... 

John McCluskey, CEO of the Canadian Alamos Gold, which caused an uproar in Turkey by cutting down 347 thousand trees in Kirazlı-Balaban, located in the Kaz Mountains ecosystem, had said, “We are trying to reach the top of Turkish politics, we are looking for suitable partners to do this.” McCluskey did not live long enough to reach the top of Turkish politics; he left... But the “local partner” he mentioned was eventually found... However, with one difference: instead of a “local partner,” a “local buyer” was found. TÜMAD Holding bought Kirazlı-Balaban... TÜMAD, that is, Çalık Holding, has already reached the top of Turkish politics for a long time.

A similar situation occurred for the Çöpler Gold Mine in Erzincan-İliç... There, too, a “local buyer” was found instead of a “local partner”... The Canadian SSR Mining, which caused Turkey to experience the February 13, 2024, Çöpler Gold Mine Disaster, left, and Cengiz Holding took its place... 

Reaching the top of Turkish politics

So why is reaching the top of Turkish politics so important... Taşyapı İnşaat, which intends to tear apart the Perşembe Plateau, is a company accused of making Istanbul unlivable by erecting skyscrapers on public areas and earthquake assembly areas in Istanbul.

The 45-story skyscrapers built on the meteorology plot in Kadıköy, Istanbul, and the 4 skyscrapers it built in the area known as an earthquake assembly area in Etiler are just two examples that have drawn reaction. Taşyapı İnşaat, which has become famous for building rent-seeking projects on the breathing spaces and green areas of Istanbul, is in a legal dispute with the Kadıköy Municipality and is being patted on the back by the government... Its quarry project in Rize-İkizdere is also being protested on the grounds that it has caused serious ecological destruction. 

Turkey is going through a very painful period... Constitutional Court decisions are not implemented, deputies are kept in prisons, and elected mayors and journalists are dragged from their homes like hardened criminals and thrown into dungeons...

However, in this environment of shock and chaos, Turkey's order of looting and plunder is working like clockwork... Incredible tenders are being held for incredible places... Those who once “betrayed” their cities, especially Istanbul, for the sake of rent, have now launched a major rent-seeking attack on the nation's villages, vineyards, gardens, forests, plateaus, and pastures.

Urgent expropriation

The nation's property and assets, their villages, are being seized for companies under the name of “urgent expropriation.” And this is called “we are doing mining.” In İvrindi, the fields of citizens around Türkmen Mountain are being transferred to a private company with an “urgent expropriation” decision. In Arhavi, a land that includes more than ten villages is being given to Cengiz Holding. In the Alpagut-Atalan region of Eskişehir, they can even open a region that has a micro-climate feature, through which the Sakarya River flows, and which is famous for its citrus orchards and forests, to wild mining...

138 thousand decares in the mountains of Giresun, covered with lush green forests and hazelnut orchards, are being given to the company of AKP Deputy Cantürk Alagöz... The unique Perşembe Plateau of Ordu is being abandoned to the wild mining practices of Taşyapı İnşaat... 5 years after the Alamos Gold disaster in the Kaz Mountains in 2019, now the Cengiz Holding disaster is being experienced... Hundreds of thousands of trees have been cut down in the Kaz Mountains ecosystem for the Halilağa Copper and Gold Mine... In the Kaz Mountains ecosystem, CVK, Koza, TÜMAD, and Cengiz have literally taken the bit between their teeth and gone on the offensive... So much so that, ignoring the anger and will of the people who chased Alamos Gold out of this country, work is being done to reopen the Kirazlı-Balaban Gold Mine... 

They want to make Turkey the center of colonial mining. Promises have been made, signatures have been signed, and action has been taken. The “Super Permit” or “Super Plunder” law, which was accepted in the TBMM with the votes of the AKP and MHP in July 2025, is also one of the most dangerous steps taken in this direction. With this law, more than 40 villages will be wiped off the map in Milas and Yatağan alone. The only power that can stop them is the power of the people. 

They are so shameless and so blinded that they are even making preparations to reopen the Çöpler Gold Mine in Erzincan-İliç, where one of Turkey's biggest mining disasters occurred on February 13, 2024.

Their eyes see neither the village nor the villager; neither the pasture, nor the forest, nor the trillions of living things within them. The only thing they see is green dollars. They are trying to feed this to the defenseless people in the region who have fallen out of the state's protection and are left in the middle of nowhere with fancy sentences. By giving social bribes and taking advantage of people's desperation, they are signing contracts with them for their future deaths like an Azrael...

500 billion tons 

They also see that the world is ending... And that if it continues like this, it will be finished much faster... The members of the TBMM İliç-Çöpler Disaster Research Commission visited the Kışladağ Gold Mine owned by El Dorado Gold – TÜPRAG in the summer of 2024. During this visit, Mehmet Yılmaz, the General Manager of the Kışladağ Gold Mine, who is also the President of the Turkish Miners Association, stated that 65 billion tons of mining material are produced in the world every year and said, “But my brother, you are producing 65 billion tons of material, how long will you continue to produce this... To extract this, there is three times as much excavation, this and that. There is a 500 billion ton material movement in the world. You are harming our future, what is happening? This is not something sustainable...”

In other words, he is saying that what they call mining is also the world's biggest problem. He explains that 65 billion tons of minerals are produced in the world every year and that 500 billion tons of excavation are created for this, and that a large part of it is abandoned as waste mountains, leach mountains, and toxic waste dams. In addition, very large proportions of water are used during these processes. The EIA report regarding the first capacity increase of the Çöpler Gold Mine stated that 130 liters of water per second were being drawn from underground wells. With the capacity increase made later, this figure was also exceeded.

That is exactly why the space race has begun... The Moon, Mars, asteroids... Their biggest goal is space mining... I pray every day... Maybe space mining will be our salvation...

İbrahim Gündüz