The colonial economy is also behind the forest fires

For a long time, there has been an observation we have used to explain the economic difficulties we are experiencing. We are going through a process of multiple institutional decay and collapse in the state and social structure, in almost every field. The scale of the forest fires is also a part of this process...

Precautions that should be taken against fires before they even start are being neglected more and more each year. It is as if an invitation to fire is being issued consciously.

I worked in the maritime industry for more than 35 years. I traveled along Turkey's coasts and the forests integrated with those coasts. In those years, the forests were protected by the forest villagers who earned their living from the forest, with the excellent organization of the Ministry of Forestry. Before the summer season began, the leaves shed by trees and dried grass in forested areas, especially along roadsides, were cleared. This layer that formed under the trees when pine needles dried was among the most important causes of fire as a result of a cigarette butt or a glass bottle refracting sunlight. In recent years, we cannot see the forest villagers. Because the AKP government has sidelined the forest villagers.

On Wednesday evening, July 2, we were with Şükrü Durmuş, the Founding President of the Agriculture and Forestry Workers' Union, on our dear journalist friend Tuncay Mollaveisoğlu's program "Anında Manşet" on Tele 1. I learned very valuable information from him as well. Also, dear Tuncay Mollaveisoğlu had a detailed conversation with Şükrü Durmuş on the 12 Punto YouTube channel. I recommend you watch it.

According to what we learned from Şükrü Durmuş, the number of forest fires occurring today is the same as the number of forest fires that occurred in the 1980s. However, the amount of burned area has increased approximately 100-fold.

Durmuş explained that there are many reasons for this. In the past, a Directorate called Or-Köy used to cooperate with the Forest Villagers. During the winter months, training was provided for firefighting, and forest villagers would clear the layer consisting of dried leaves before the fire season began, and they would also earn a few pennies. When a fire broke out, the forest villagers would make the first intervention to the surface fire with pickaxes, shovels, and brooms in their hands. According to Şükrü Durmuş, a forest fire starts with a surface fire. The villagers were making the first intervention with pickaxes, shovels, and brooms without any equipment in their hands. As a result of the intervention made to the surface fire, the fire extinguishing rate reached 80 percent.

If the fire jumps to the trunk of the tree, the chance of extinguishing it drops to 50 percent. If it climbs from the trunk to the top of the tree, the chance of extinguishing it drops to 20 percent.

In every forest fire, our eyes look for the Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK) planes. I don't think there is a need to write about the AKP government's obsession with the Turkish Aeronautical Association and Atatürk here. Both the THK and the planes were sidelined. They didn't perform their maintenance; they called them scrap. But in an emergency, it was seen that their flight capabilities are intact. Oktay Erdağı, the Deputy Chairman of the Doğru Party responsible for Transportation, is a retired Deputy Director General of Civil Aviation. With his years of knowledge and experience, Oktay Erdağı explained with documents that the Turkish Aeronautical Association planes were not scrap, that they had airworthiness certificates, and that their flight costs were much more advantageous than the foreign planes rented today.

I saw it with my own eyes. There is a group of planes they rented as firefighting planes. It cannot land on the sea. Its capacity is 3 tons of water. It lands at Dalaman Airport to refuel. They rented them from America. But these planes are not used as firefighting planes in America, but for spraying agricultural areas. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES AND MINERS

Of course, one of the most important causes of the fire is electricity transmission lines. As the weather warms up, the wires expand. They come into contact with each other, and the fire resulting from the arc ignites the dry grass at the base of the electricity poles. From there, the fire grows. What needs to be done? Electricity distribution companies should perform maintenance and adjustments during the expansion and tension periods of the wires. Just as a guitar or violin string loosens and needs tuning when the weather warms up, expanding electrical wires also need to be tightened. The dry leaf layer at the base of the pole needs to be cleared. Do electricity distribution companies bother with such costs? They should constantly receive money like the tax farmers of a colonial country. On top of that, they don't even pay taxes.

We have also seen many planned fires carried out on an island-parcel basis for hotel construction. But the real disaster is in mining... Open and wild mining licenses are being granted in forested areas. I have been saying this for a long time. The mining done in Turkey is colonial country mining. They are destroying our forests, wetlands, olive groves, and agricultural lands with open-pit mining. But in return, they have the slightest contribution to the state and the welfare of the people. The share of the mining sector in the national income (GDP) is 1 percent. The mining royalty they pay to the state is around 0.2 percent. Miners also pose the greatest threat to our forest assets. Canada, which has the world's largest forest assets, does not do mining in its forests like we do, but Canadian companies are plundering forests here to search for gold.

We learn again from Şükrü Durmuş. Wood industry and forestry... Here, during the AKP government period, we have treated forests very recklessly. We have looted the forests.

Forests are both an ecological value. They are a source of clean air, oxygen, and water. They are also an economic value. They are the primary source of the wood material we use in every area of life. Of course, we will benefit from the economic values of the forests. But a balance must be established here as well. The golden ratio used in the past, the one-third rule, used to be applied. It is as follows: Every forest, like every living organism, grows every year. Ministry of Forestry officials would make an assessment. One-third of how many units this forest grew would be cut and brought into the economy, one-third would be reserved against fire or other disasters, and the other one-third would be set aside for increasing the forest assets and wealth.

Şükrü Durmuş gives an example like this. You have 1000 liras. You earned 300 liras in interest income. You spend 100 liras. You use 100 liras as a reserve fund for rainy days, and you add 100 liras to the principal to increase your assets. So what are we doing? We are handing over the forests to multinational private companies and cutting them down. Today, Europe and developed countries protect their forest assets and meet their wood needs from developing or underdeveloped countries like us.

For example, just one company in Kastamonu meets 70 percent of all of Europe's MDF needs. Look at the forest assets in Europe on a satellite map, and then look at Turkey's...

We say it again. There is not a single country that has sold its natural resources and minerals as raw materials and reached prosperity and developed. The colonial country economic model shows itself again behind the forest fires and forest looting.