The Peasant and the Octopus

CYANIDE DIARIES FROM BERGAMA-19

Good news! The cyanide users have had another child!

Koza Madencilik A.Ş. is opening yet another new gold mine near the villages of Serçiler and Terziler, located in the central district of Çanakkale.

Its name: The “Karapınar Open Pit Gold-Silver Mine” Project.

It is located 1,400 meters from the Çanakkale-Karapınar Dam. It sits within the dam’s “medium-to-long-range protection zone.”

In other words, this area has been restricted to keep the dam water clean.

A toxic mine is going to be opened inside this area.

This means the dam water that meets Çanakkale’s drinking water needs is under serious threat.

Environmentalists report that 93 hectares of forest and 23 hectares of agricultural land will be excavated, and its nature will be altered and destroyed.

(Çanakkale-Toxic gold mine site and Karapınar Dam)

This initiative is just one of many toxic mines intended to be operated in the province of Çanakkale.

Despite the objections of many institutions, primarily the Çanakkale Municipality, the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) process, which was initiated for the third time for this mine in Serçiler village, finally resulted in a “positive” report, claiming it would not be “harmful” to the environment.

In other words, the path for operating the gold mine has been cleared.

The mine will be operated by the famous KOZA ALTIN company.

This organization, which was initially owned by multinational companies, later fell into the hands of Akın İpek, who was tried and accused of FETÖ affiliation and treason; subsequently, it was seized by state institutions. So, in a sense, this company is state-owned.

It is said that the gold and silver ore will most likely be transported by truck to Bergama and processed at the cyanide-based mining facility that KOZA operates in Ovacık.

This cyanide-using company has equipped Bergama with toxic waste ponds containing a thousand and one risks. One, two, three...

The lands in Çanakkale will be excavated and ruined; afterwards, toxic waste piles loaded with heavy metals will be left behind.

So, we will be saved from the poor guardianship of our rich lands(!)

We will be even richer(!)

These points were reached stage by stage...

Look at how global cruel capitalism has descended upon the country!

How its local cronies have helped them!

(Bergama-Ovacık gold mine, the third set of dams/pits filled with toxic waste-Photo: Özer Akdemir)

***

Today, “toxic gold mining” is the most concrete indicator of a return to the savage period at the beginning of capitalism.

But this time it is different: Transnational finance capital has seized money, industry, technology, natural resources, and informatics; it is running wild in the world with incredible armed power.

And it does so without mercy, using the most brutal methods: by cruelly killing people.

Just as in the Erzincan-İliç-Çöpler Toxic Gold Mine.

“Cyanide-based gold mining” is the type of operation where capitalism’s instinctive tendencies—such as making money, increasing capital, and adding capital to capital—are revealed in their most brutal form.

Big companies call these and similar operations “precious metal mining.”

(Actually, an octopus is a cute and intelligent creature, but it is also eerie!)

For this reason, the great United States is trying to seize the precious metals of war-torn Ukraine through the back door in exchange for weapons.

It is even negotiating with Russia over these under the guise of peace.

The money moguls have no shame!

The cyanide-using octopus is very cruel!

It makes calculations over the life of nature and the blood of humans!

***

Cyanide-based gold mining has been slaughtering nature in the world for nearly a hundred years; it causes irreparable damage to people and the environment, and opens deep wounds.

Such operations extract the gold from the bosom of the earth using cyanide; they leave behind toxic heavy metals such as arsenic and cadmium along with cyanide compounds in nature.

In gold mines where the ores are sulfurous, the soil is burned by heating it to high temperatures; this is called calcination. The sulfur in the ore is removed by converting it into sulfur dioxide (SO²) gas.

In addition to this, arsenic, which is a violent poison naturally found in the ore, also evaporates and mixes into the air as arsenic trioxide (As²O³) gas.

The remaining gold-bearing soil is subjected to cyanide processing to separate the gold within it.

The toxic waste with heavy metals that remains from that is collected in a dam or waste ponds.

Both the gas and solid waste from this process are among the most toxic substances in the world.

The operations carried out in these facilities, which are built in rural areas or near residential areas, are not ordinary mining activities.

They are intensive chemical processes carried out in the open air.

This is an ugly game played with tons of poison by those who care about nothing but making money!

Gold prices rise and fall; but the poisons are buried in the soil and remain there.

(Erzincan-İliç-Çöpler cyanide gold mine. It was closed after the death of 8 workers. Efforts are being made to reopen it.)

***

The cyanide gold mines currently operating or being prepared for operation in Turkey are facilities of this nature.

They have been brought to our country by the savage companies of imperialism, and their activities are being continued by local collaborators and partners.

The most saddening part of the situation is that high-level state officials, who have convinced themselves of deceptive and misleading justifications like “the supreme interest of the country,” are turning a blind eye to this situation!

In fact, the process is moving forward with opposition politicians like local MP Mustafa Sarıgül, who advocates for the reopening of the closed, deadly toxic mine in Erzincan! Despite the 8 people whose corpses were pulled out of the cyanide-laced mud!

And now, local greedy capitalists who have learned the technology are also after this toxic gold in our country.

While these companies distract the public and public officials with the dream that “you will get rich with toxic gold,” they are filling their pockets on one hand and destroying nature by poisoning it.

Of course, many people do not ignore this situation and are raising their voices.

Saying “No!” to poisoning is emerging as the most effective expression.

The attitude of the cyanide users to silence those who resist is very clear: “Any means is permissible!”

That is, to intimidate, to make them comply!

From time to time, they are successful in this as well.

***

The first to rebel against the “Cyanide Octopus,” one of the most dangerous products of imperialism, were the people of Bergama.

The Eurogold company, with German origins, Canadian, French state partnership, and US and Australian capital, encountered a resistance it did not expect and never anticipated in Bergama, where it came to bring “civilization” (!) through cyanide mining.

When the villagers learned that this operation would work with cyanide and spread poison to the environment, they stood up to protect their lands.

What was imperialism to do?

What happened in Bergama is a cautionary tale for people who will encounter similar situations in dozens of other places.

Because there were, and are, about 500 more pieces of Anatolian land waiting to be dug up and cyanided.

***

(Betül Mardin)

Of course, the “Cyanide Octopus” had to first convince the public to overcome Bergama, which it saw as the first obstacle in its path.

How “beneficial” cyanide is had to be explained to the public!

Whispers in this direction were already reaching the company’s ears from above, from Ankara, to grant the operating permit.

The arms of the cyanide users are long!

It accesses every resource, uses every relationship.

The multinational Eurogold company began working with well-known public relations experts to neutralize the villagers who opposed the cyanide gold mine it wanted to operate in Bergama.

Brochures printed on glossy paper and advertisements placed in newspapers were published and distributed one after another.

They couldn’t really get close to the villagers at first. The local leaders (Efeler) had stern looks!

They were shouting at the top of their lungs, “Cyanide company, leave Bergama!”

They were calling on all those who respect nature and humanity to show solidarity.

But, “Would a gold cake like Turkey be left for the Cyanide Octopus?”

There was no giving up!

By explaining the “benefits” of cyanide gold, the public had to be convinced!

(Bergama-1994)

***

Engineer A. V. Oygör, one of the company officials who looked at and wrote about what happened from the perspective of the Cyanide Octopus, explains the developments as follows:

“Faced with these negative situations, the company management decides to work with a public relations company, and an agreement is made with the ‘İmaj’ Public Relations company in Istanbul, owned by Betül Mardin, who is considered one of the doyennes of public relations.”

The famous advertiser Betül Mardin is tasked with improving the image of the poisoning company. Probably not cheaply!

Journalists with broad influence in shaping public opinion are invited to the gold mine in Bergama-Ovacık from Istanbul, the center of the press in Turkey.

The goal is clear: To ensure they do not warn the public against the disasters that cyanide mines can cause; to ensure they do not reflect the opposing views of the protesters.

The press must be kept under control, and they must be prevented from reporting in favor of the villagers.

So that the company officials can do as they please, work as they wish, and poison the surroundings!

In this direction, the journalists invited to Bergama will be shown and told on-site how “respectful” their cyanide projects are to the environment.

It will be ensured that the journalists witness the beauty (!) and “benefits” of cyanide gold.

They might even call the opponents agents!

With positive publications in the newspapers, the perception formed in the public against the cyanide users will change.

Thus, they think they can silence the environmentalists.

(Cyanide gold narrator A.Vedat Oygör)

***

However, at Betül Mardin’s request, despite the opposition of company officials, they feel the need to inform the Bergama Municipality, the center of the resistance, about this trip by sending two managers from the public relations company İmaj to the municipality one day before the trip to the mine site.”

Betül Mardin knows the Bergama Mayor of that period (1989-1999).

The Mayor had encountered Betül Mardin at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, where he had gone for public business; he had harshly criticized to her face how Betül Hanım, known as an “exemplary communicator” and “a member of a noble and intellectual family,” could engage in the propaganda of a dirty business like “cyanide-based gold mining”:

“Whose homeland is this?”

“How can a famous lady who brought a modern concept like public relations/PR to Turkey get involved in a dirty business like cyanide mining?”

Of course, intellectuals may also need money; but dirty money is such that once it sticks to a person, it doesn’t let go easily!

Betül Mardin, however, was polite; she sent two young employees and invited the Bergama Municipality to the journalists’ visit.

(Bergama-Ovacık cyanide gold mine operation)

The next day, the young people who came to the Municipality were individuals with a “leftist” background who had just been released from prison.

Both had been arrested during the September 12 events, had served time, and had suffered because they were “revolutionaries.” They had started working for B. Mardin for bread money and were forced to get involved in this dirty business!

Still, they try to fulfill the task given to them:

“They say that no results can be achieved with the resistance of the villagers, that they know social events well, and that powerful circles are determined not to let these actions yield results.”

They are messengers. They convey the situation, are listened to, and are seen off.

These two young men, who were welcomed as guests, leave the Municipality safely.

While the “right” wing generally adopts a positive attitude towards cyanide gold mining, the “left” wing is in opposition.

However, the “cyanide company” can sometimes employ some people known to be on the “left” on its side.

“Use whoever you need to reach your goal!”

In fact, they appointed a person who was a Bursa parliamentary candidate from the Freedom and Democracy Party in one of the general elections held at that time to an important position at the company’s construction site in Bergama.

After seeing the inside of the business, this person left the poisoning company after a few years.

(Bergama villagers-1995)

***

In this environment, the news that famous journalists from Istanbul would come to the region reaches the villagers and environmentalists quickly.

The entire village population is informed of the situation through the resisting village headmen.

The protesters will, of course, raise their voices.

The Istanbul journalists, who came to listen to the benefits of “toxic gold,” are brought to Bergama-Ovacık/Çamköy by the company, first by plane to İzmir and then by bus.

Engineer A.V. Oygör, who is understood to be tasked with recording the Cyanide Octopus’s adventure in Bergama from the perspective of the cyanide users, continues to explain:

“The next day, when the bus carrying the press members arrived at the Ovacık Village junction, it was seen that the Mayor and hundreds of local people had gathered around the road leading from the junction to the mine with banners in their hands.”

Learning that well-known press members would come near the village, the villagers had organized a large demonstration with the participation of hundreds of people at the gate of the mine site, which was surrounded by wire fences.

This welcome, which had an impact on the journalists, had great meaning for the environmentalist villagers.

This situation was an important opportunity for them to express themselves and make their voices heard by the public!

When has the oppressed peasant class been able to tell their troubles, and how!

Of course, Sabahat Hanım, Bayram Çavuş, Polat Bektaş, Muzaffer Duran, Muammer Sezer, Topal Hasan, A. Ünaleroğlu, and others are there.

The banners in their hands and the slogans they shout at the top of their lungs are quite striking:

“Our land is more valuable than gold.”

“Do not touch our olive trees!”

“Don’t be silent, if you remain silent, your turn will come!”

“Cyanide company, leave Turkey!”

These are the words that spilled spontaneously from the lips of the villagers in the 1990s.

These slogans, which had not been heard before in Turkey, would circulate from tongue to tongue throughout the country in the following years.

The excited shouts of the cap-wearing peasants, the women in baggy trousers, and the tiny children; this powerful stance they put forward astonishes the Istanbul journalists.

According to the records of cyanide mine narrator A.V. Oygör: “This is an environment that the press looks for but cannot find. This first mass action becomes a headline in all newspapers the next day, and the positive atmosphere that had formed in the media (in favor of the company) until that day is wiped out. With mostly negative news, the company never comes down from the headlines again.”

Reporter A.V. Oygör laments: “At that time, since the problems that could arise with the mining sector and the local people were not known, even very well-known public relations experts could not be successful.”

The invitation made by the cyanide company to create public opinion in its favor resulted in a complete fiasco.

The journalists leave the region with the exact opposite view.

(Bergama resistance women-1994)

***

In the early 1990s, the country was just beginning to shake off the pressure of the September 12 fascism.

There was no end to the number of lives taken by fascist generals, unsolved murders, intellectuals thrown into dungeons, and young people and unionists who were shot.

Those years were also the era of administrators who said, “I am the law.”

Anyone who raised their head was immediately crushed and thrown into a dungeon.

The journalists from Istanbul were astonished.

They had come here to see the gold mine that would make the country rich; but they had encountered a lively, enterprising group of people defending their rights.

Moreover, most of them were not well-known or organized people, but ordinary peasant farmers!

And this situation had caught the attention of many intellectual journalists.

They, too, had not been spared the cruelty of the fascist generals of September 12.

It could be read in the eyes of the protesters how determined they were to protect their environment.

Moreover, the women were at the forefront!

So such things could happen in the country!

People, society is changing... Could it be changing!

Had the public, which was suppressed by heavy pressure during the September 12 period, begun to shake itself off?

What was the social meaning of this mass action displayed by these villagers?

Moreover, this was an “environmental event”!

(Bergama-1996)

***

In those years, environmental protection – ecology – was seen more as an area of interest peculiar to intellectuals.

Yet here, ordinary people had stood up to protect nature and their lives.

While it was thought that one needed to acquire complex, difficult-to-understand information to be interested in environmental problems, what had happened to these barefoot peasants?

Words like “environment, cyanide, heavy metal, Bergen/Norway Agreement, referendum” were spilling from their mouths.

Moreover, after the days of fascism, when even the gathering of three or five people could be considered a social action and a crime, the Istanbul press members were met by hundreds of brave villagers who stood at the gate of the cyanide mine in Bergama and shouted their opposition loudly.

***

There was also a theoretical problem for the intellectuals.

The following approach was generally accepted in political science discussions:

“The working class is more prone to organization because it is in conditions of mass production; peasants, on the other hand, are a segment that is fond of their traditions, calm, resigned, and distant from social reactions.”

Those who thought this way were not entirely wrong!

Unless the knife hit the bone, the public would not move easily.

But now, dozens of Bergama villagers were marching against environmental pollution with slogans and an environmentalist consciousness that was thought to be peculiar to city dwellers (!), displaying a lively and determined stance.

How could this be explained?

The analysis was clear: These villagers were acting with support they received from city dwellers and with inferences based on scientific data.

In the whole world, including Turkey, “environmental problems” were violently threatening nature and human life.

Their lives were in danger.

This resistance of the people of Bergama was an act of defending their “right to life.”

And they were right.

The knife had begun to hit the bone!

(Bergama Villagers-1995)

***

Of course, the journalists brought to Bergama by the Eurogold company to prove how “clean” and “beneficial to the country” its work was returned to Istanbul with the exact opposite views.

The environmentalists’ young public relations officer, Ö.D., had defeated the world-famous advertiser Betül Mardin.

The next day, not a single line in favor of the cyanide company appeared in the newspapers.

The country was talking about the “villagers” of Bergama and the “Cyanide Octopus”!

At this rate, the public resistance across the country against cyanide gold will be talked about for years to come!

(Source: https://www.canakkaleaynalipazar.com/koza-nin-altin-madeni-projesinin-ced-i-onaylandi/26181/// https://www.birgun.net/haber/canakkale-de-atikhisar-baraji-altin-madeni-tehdidi-altinda-halk-suyuna-sahip-cikiyor-620463 /// (Source: https://alivedatoygurmadencilik.wordpress.com/2018/01/06/ovacik-altin-madeni-bugunlere-nasil-geldi////)

Sefa Taşkın

31.08.2025

Dikili/İzmir