Arsenic and cyanide made Kadir a widower!

BERGAMA CYANIDE DIARIES-3.

It is known that gold and silver have been of interest to humans for a very long time.

While there were not many well-known gold mines in Anatolia during the Ottoman period, the "silver" needed to mint the coins called "akçe" for the State was mostly supplied from mines in Gümüşhane-Gümüşhacıköy, Erzincan-Keban, and Kütahya-Gümüşköy.

Silver was also used in the production of jewelry and household items.

"Banknotes, Kayme, Paper money" were introduced into circulation in the mid-19th century.

In the early years of the Republic, there was a lack of regulation, technical capacity, and efficiency in small-scale operations to exploit mines from which silver could be obtained to be turned into metal coins.

With the Republic, many other mines were discovered and operated through the initiative of the "Mineral Research and Exploration Institute (MTA)," one of the apple-of-the-eye institutions of the young State. 

However, mines containing ore with small amounts of gold and silver were likely not seen as being in a condition to be operated using traditional methods.

It was impossible for the State not to know about these, given that the MTA conducts very comprehensive research across Anatolia.

Furthermore, it is inconceivable that the State would not have seen that for nearly a hundred years, gold and silver have been extracted in many parts of the world using brutal cyanide methods, devastating the environment.

There were embassies everywhere: officials there who could have dealt with this issue. And international relations. Trained personnel.

(The place of Kütahya-Gümüşköy in Anatolia)

The MTA, of course, knew about the silver mine in Kütahya-Gümüşköy.

Mining galleries dating back to the 2nd millennium B.C. and ore deposits operated in the 1st-3rd centuries A.D. had been found here. The mine had also been used during the Ottoman era.

The ore was not low-grade, but the silver in the soil was not abundant or concentrated enough to be extracted or collected by hand.

Just as is done in gold and silver mines in many poor and desolate countries or regions of the world, an attempt was made to extract the silver from the ore using 'cyanide'.

The potential damage such an operation could cause to the region was ignored. The concept of "environmental protection" did not exist in Turkey, nor even in the world at that time.

In the early years of the Republic, the young state established the MTA to discover mines and, in the same year, ETIBANK to process them.

The silver mine within the borders of Kütahya-Gümüşköy, known to the MTA, began to be operated by ETIBANK in 1975. In 1980, the facility to separate silver from the soil was established. (https://www.etimaden.gov.tr/tarihce)

(Kütahya-Gümüşköy cyanide silver-gold mine)

The description of the established facility was: "Silver Ore Enrichment Plant, Mining Pits, and Regular Storage Facilities belonging to ETI GÜMÜŞ AŞ."

This "open-air poison factory" was taken over for operation by the German company KRUPP in 1987. (https://www.dedeliyatirim.com.tr/tarihce.php)

Gustav Krupp, one of the owners of the KRUPP company, was put on trial as a "war criminal" at the end of the war in 1945 for manufacturing weapons for the cruel Hitler, and his son Alfred Krupp was sentenced to prison.

The processing capacity of the "Cyanide Silver" factory in Kütahya was projected at 12,000,000 tons per year, with a reserve of 100 million tons and an average silver content (tenor) in the soil of 10-180 g/ton.

These amounts were not small, but the consequences were terrifying!

Now, "cyanide" and "arsenic," the "toxic brothers," had also entered the fray! 

And of course, the other little brothers; deadly "heavy metals" like cadmium, copper, and lead as well!

(Kütahya-Gümüşköy open-pit cyanide silver mine)

***

Moreover, the owner of the facility was ETİ GÜMÜŞ, and it was operated on behalf of a state-owned company by a German firm, KRUPP.

According to information provided by Geological Engineer Tahir Öngür, this facility was "a cyanide-based silver processing plant established with German technical and financial assistance, which served as a market for German mining machinery and hydrometallurgical equipment—especially cyanide—and provided cheap silver to (global) metal exchanges." 

It is a strange irony that in the 1990s, environmentalists and local residents in Bergama and across Turkey who opposed "cyanide-leach gold mining" due to the harm it could cause to the environment and human health were accused by the cyanide industry of acting in the interests of the German state, under the clamor that "the German state does not want gold mining to be carried out in Turkey." 

(War machines built by the German company Krupp during World War I)

In fact, everything was out in the open, but the situation would only be understood later.

It was German companies that inflicted "toxic silver and gold mining" upon Turkey.

Their collaborators in our country were also very enamored with foreign companies in the name of "national interest"!

Their hands never trembled while throwing mud at environmentalists!

However, the saying that "the truth has a habit of coming out sooner or later" holds true from time to time.

The expression "the gilding of shiny words wears off quickly, leaving only the bare truth" defines the "reality."

It is understood that the notorious German company KRUPP was the first to implement "cyanide-based silver and gold mining" in Turkey, specifically in Kütahya, which has become a scourge for our country.  

It is likely that the company that manufactured the cyanide in Germany and brought it to Turkey was also a German company, DEGUSSA, or one similar to it.

DEGUSSA was known as the company that collected, melted down, and marketed the gold teeth of Jews burned in ovens during World War II.

Look at how the authorities were deceived by the "organized lie" invented to intimidate environmentalists using NAZI-style propaganda. Or perhaps they were all too willing to be deceived!

As would later be revealed through documents, this was likely a ruse to carry out toxic ambitions.

What the methods of the German fascist GOEBBELS, who made society believe a lie was the truth by repeating it over and over, were capable of!

(German Goebbels, Propaganda Minister of the fascist Nazi Party that drenched Europe in blood during World War II)

One had to believe in how beneficial cyanide and arsenic were!

This was exactly what the "cyanide-gold lovers" wanted!

Not to understand, not to know, to remain silent!

The "Cyanide Octopus," which wraps its arms around the entire world; "Cyanide Companies" are now using the same slanders in other parts of Anatolia, and even in Serbia, trying to smear environmentalists.

***

That is how the mine in Kütahya Gümüşköy began its operations.

The area was intertwined with cyanide, arsenic, and a thousand kinds of poison! 

The ore began to be extracted from the soil, silver was separated with the help of "cyanide" in a facility built like a factory, and the remaining toxic waste began to be stored in a dam built adjacent to the operation.

Tons and tons of it!

Along with silver and gold, poisons such as "cyanide-based metal compounds and arsenic" found in nature immediately began to show their effects.

The Dulkadirli village, located right next to the facility and already struggling with drinking water issues, was immediately affected by the hazardous operations being conducted there.

(Kütahya-Tavşanlı-Dulkadir village)

Cancer emerged as a result of arsenic mixing into the drinking water, the use of arsenic-laden mud for plastering walls, and people inhaling it.

The villagers had not been warned about such a threat. 

Because they had found jobs at the facility, they could not speak out for fear of being fired.

Oh, this poverty!

(In the village of Kütahya-Dulkadirli, efforts are being made to mitigate the effects of the arsenic/poisons that have spread to the surroundings. https://www.cnnturk.com/turkiye/siyanurden-1-kisi-daha-hastanelik-oldu-98770)

If there is silver, there is poison!

Cancer cases have increased rapidly.

Because "arsenic" and "rat poison" showed no mercy.

If the amount mixed into the water is high, it kills in a short time; when taken in small amounts, it accumulates in the body and leads to cancer.

The result, of course, is illness and death!

The village of Dulkadirli in Kütahya province was either emptying out due to deaths, or villagers were fleeing the village in fear of death. (https://www.sondakika.com/yerel/haber-dulkadir-koyu-muhtari-bu-koyde-insanlar-kanser-2721118/)

Women were primarily contracting breast and uterine cancer.

The "Kadirs" were left "widowed" in the village of "Dulkadirli"!

***

The enactment of the Mining Law in 1985, which offered our underground wealth to imperialist companies on a "golden platter," opened a new era in the country.

It was now within the legal framework for the state-owned ETİ GÜMÜŞ company, through the German company KRUPP, to operate the silver mine near the village of Dulkadirli in Kütahya using "cyanide."

However, "cyanide-based silver mining" is a complicated business. It means performing "chemical processes" in the open air. 

The German KRUPP-led ETİ GÜMÜŞ company botched the operations there. 

Cyanide-contaminated water leaks and arsenic-laden toxic waste caused by this type of operation were ruining the environment.

The deadly games of cyanide and arsenic were being exposed one by one.

The villagers who died were, unfortunately, the victims of the revenge taken by the polluted nature!

Yet, no one in the country was aware of what was happening here.

Moreover, the country's economic assets and savings were being sold off one by one in a wave of "privatization."

Imperialist exploitation was being universalized under the name of "globalism."

On March 2, 1998, ETİBANK was purchased by Dinç Bilgin and Cavit Çağlar within the framework of the privatization carried out by the ANA-SOL-DTP coalition government led by Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz.

However, these influential and famous figures in Turkish politics and media would later be tried on charges of causing losses to ETİBANK.

The wind blew, and not even the dust remained! What remained was the poison!

The Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) seized ETİBANK with a decision taken on October 27, 2000. 

It transferred the management and supervision to the state's Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF).

Naturally, during this process, the ETİ GÜMÜŞ company continued to extract silver (along with the gold found with it) using cyanide, the environment was being poisoned, and people were getting sick and likely dying. 

However, no one in the country would have known what was happening here until the environmental incidents in Bergama and the resistance of villagers and environmentalists against "cyanide-leached gold" broke out.

Would the state be able to escape this dirty business it was involved in by selling the facility under the name of privatization?

Or were even greater disasters and more intriguing, shady games appearing on the horizon?

Cyanide and arsenic were preparing to descend upon Anatolia through sinister hands!

How?

(Ergun Kaptan (1983): Findings regarding the mining history of Turkey covering Kütahya-Gümüşköy and its region. General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration, Museum Executive Board, Ankara /// www.mta.gov.tr /// www.etigumus.com.tr)

Sefa Taşkın

08.25.2024

Dikili/Bergama