Criminal complaint filed against General Directorate of Forestry head Karacabey by Tarım Orman İş Union President Durmuş

Journalist, author, and 12punto.com.tr programmer Tuncay Mollaveisoğlu shared a post to draw attention to the inadequacy of the interventions in forest fires and the fact that these fires are the result of poor management.

Stating that helicopters were unable to intervene in the fires in Edremit, Gümüldür, Seferihisar, and Kemalpaşa, Mollaveisoğlu pointed to the non-payment of helicopter rentals or fuel costs as the reason for this.

Tuncay Mollaveisoğlu spoke with Tarım Orman İş Union President Şükrü Durmuş to draw attention to the events.

Here are those statements made by Durmuş:

Turkey's forests are burning fiercely, and these fires are not coincidental. I underline that this is the result of the weakness and collapse within the institution. Currently, the helicopters that should be intervening in the fire cannot intervene.

The Bergama helicopter, which is located very close to the fire, is not taking off due to financial reasons, that is, because its rent has not been paid or the pilots' salaries have not been paid.

The Gümüldür, Seferihisar, and Kemalpaşa helicopters, which were intervening in the fire and landed at Edremit airport for refueling, are stranded at the airport with their personnel because the fuel costs have not been paid. Our 3 helicopters are being kept at the airport. The problem here is entirely the result of the incompetence of the managers.

If General Director Bekir Karacabey does not save on his own reputation, receives generous salaries, and rides in luxury vehicles while the fuel costs of the helicopters that should be intervening in the fires cannot be paid, then this weakness is their fault.

Bekir Karacabey must be removed from his post. As long as he is not removed from there, our forests will continue to burn.

As of today, I am filing a criminal complaint against him on behalf of the Tarım Orman İş Union.

Journalist Tuncay Mollaveisoğlu spoke with Tarım Orman İş Union President Durmuş:
Durmuş said that the forest fires were not a coincidence and that he would file a criminal complaint against General Director of Forestry Karacabeyhttps://t.co/v5cuSBudQ6 pic.twitter.com/O6CverK2yl

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TUNCAY MOLLAVEİSOĞLU HAD PREVIOUSLY DRAWN ATTENTION TO THE HELPLESSNESS REGARDING FIRE-FIGHTING AIRCRAFT IN HIS PREVIOUS REPORTS

Journalist Tuncay Mollaveisoğlu had previously written about the final status of the Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK) aircraft and the government's preparations for aerial intervention in fires in his column titled 'Aircraft', and had used the following expressions:

The THK aircraft they called scrap were in the sky last week...

After 211 thousand hectares of forest area burned to ashes...

In three years, we lost our forests the size of approximately 300 thousand football fields.

These were the largest forest fires in history...

***

I wrote about it and followed it up for three years... I did dozens of reports...

In 2019,

I wrote that the Turkish Aeronautical Association aircraft were deactivated and the fire-fighting work was transferred to the private sector,

That helicopters were rented instead of aircraft, that intervention only with helicopters would be insufficient,

Why a company whose main business is architecture undertook the fire-fighting work,

I wrote about how the world's best-trained fire-fighting fleet, the Fire Birds, was disbanded and how the institution was locked down.

***

I refuted the Ministry's lie that “the aircraft are scrap” with documents...