The politics, bureaucrat, and mafia triangle! A forest plunder like this has never been seen before

Antalya’s world-famous Kaş District, Kalkan neighborhood, is in the crosshairs of forest profiteers.

A forest area overlooking the unique Patara coast has been destroyed by a group of profiteers that includes politicians and bureaucrats. The profiteers, who cleared the forest area consisting of approximately 2,500 decares of maquis shrubland, purchased the forest at a very low price through their 'friends' on the inside by obtaining a document stating that it had 'lost its forest character.' Inspectors documented the plunder and requested the cancellation of the sale. However, the profiteers were under 'protection'!

Kaş’s Kalkan shores, where local and foreign tourists flock, the Patara beach, reflections of paradise on earth… Areas that the Ministry of Forestry should protect like its own life, areas under constitutional protection…

The dirty gears of profiteering are turning to turn these heavenly lands into concrete and desert, and some of the authorities are personally involved in this plunder!

A team within the cadastre commissions affiliated with the Ministry of Forestry and the General Directorate of Forestry is acting in concert with the profiteers who are slaughtering and clearing the forest area. Let me summarize how this historic heist works;

The first step… Site identification is carried out… Forested areas overlooking the unique beauty of the Mediterranean, which would be worth millions of dollars if a villa were built on them, are identified. In a state governed by the rule of law, where you cannot even cut a branch, these areas are entered with excavators and bulldozers.

The forested area is cleared of its forest ecosystem in a short time! Then, the profiteering teams in the forest cadastre commissions are activated. The cadastre issues a report on the forest area, stating that it has 'now lost its forest character.' In other words, they apply the 2/b provision according to Article 2/b of the Forest Law No. 6831 and sell this area to those who previously occupied it.

‘2/b’ refers to areas in the law that have lost their forest characteristics. Based on the fabrication that it has lost its forest character, the area in question is transferred from the Ministry of Forestry to the Treasury. As soon as it passes to the Treasury, title deeds are issued for these areas, which are already occupied by the profiteering network, at very low prices!

How about that! The system works like clockwork… Because the links in the chain of plunder, according to allegations, extend from the local neighborhood headman (muhtar) to the mayor, and from the General Director of Forestry to the Forest Management Director…

With this method, 17 parcels of forest land in the Kalkan neighborhood of Antalya’s Kaş district were seized by having their forest character 'lost'!

The 17 parcels correspond to approximately 2,500 decares… In other words, a forest area the size of 357 football fields was cleared, cut down, and removed from its forest status by profiteers, and these areas were handed over to cronies through the Treasury.

The country’s 'honest' inspectors detected the plunder. They reported that the areas in question still possessed forest character, that they were removed from forest status through fraud, and that the sale should be canceled…

So what happened? For a year, the reports have been swept under the rug, and the profiteers continue to clear land in the same parcels!

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This plunder took place before the eyes of the General Director of Forestry, the Regional Director of Forestry, and the Forest Management Director, and according to allegations, with their knowledge! Of course, AKP politicians are also in the background of the plunder.

The coastal strip of the Mediterranean belt is maquis shrubland.. It is the habitat of fauna and flora… It hosts breeding grounds for animals, snakes, birds, mountain goats, bees, and endemic plant species. Like the dense maquis vegetation, the rocky ground that is home to thousands of animals is also a forest area. These heavenly lands, protected for centuries, are witnessing a plunder of this scale for the first time…

Parcels with sea views in Sahil Aklar Village in the Kalkan neighborhood of Kaş District… The numbers of the plundered parcels are as follows; parcels numbered 184, 212, 230, 11, 15, 202, 23, 33, 44, 31, 13, 12, 204, 205, 2, 109, 195…

Inspectors affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the General Directorate of Forestry conducted their last inspection on 02.08.2022.

According to the report, a character assessment was made according to the forest cadastre and 2/b implementation regulation, but areas that could NOT BE SUBJECT TO 2/b IN ANY WAY were classified as 2/b. The report requests the cancellation of the 2/b application in these areas. However, despite this decision by the inspectors, the requirements of the report are not being fulfilled!

Let me end my article, which should be treated as a criminal complaint by prosecutors, with an allegation that only prosecutors can uncover.

It is alleged that parcel number 212, the area that was handed over by saying it had 'lost its forest character' even though it was a forest, belongs to the local neighborhood headman and the mayor, who are brothers.

Many civilizations existed on the lands where the Lycian civilization was born about 3,000 years ago… The current owners of these ancient lands, the villagers, cannot make their voices heard by the gendarmerie or the Parliament regarding the plunder taking place…

The voices of those who rebel against the multi-million dollar plunder order are drowning in the blue of the Mediterranean…