Turkey's environmental activist is among BBC's 100 inspiring and influential women

The village and its women were at the heart of environmental campaign against the deforestation in the Akbelen forest in southwestern Trukey 

Originally published on Global Voices

Every year, the BBC announces a list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world. This year, in the category of “Climate Pioneers,” is Nejla Işık, the head of Ikizkoy village from Turkey. The village and its women were at the heart of an environmental campaign against deforestation in the Akbelen forest in Muğla province.

İkizköy village

İkizköy village is situated near the Akbelen forest in Turkey's southwestern province of Muğla. Since 2019, residents of the village have been trying to prevent deforestation in the Akbelen forest but have met with a crackdown.

In July 2023, two companies — Limak Holding and İÇTAŞ Enerji — with ties to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) moved to cut down trees in the Akbelen forest. This followed the decision by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to hand some 740 decares (740,000 square meters) of forest land over to YK Energy — a joint company set up by Limak and İÇTAŞ — to mine for lignite in April 2021.

Shortly after the destruction of the forest began, a group of women from İkizköy village became the symbols of the local resistance. Among them, was Nejla Işık. In an interview with Fayn Studio, a Turkish online media outlet, Işık said making it to the list gave the community renewed hope and an opportunity to have the world hear of their struggle. She said before the forest was destroyed, “We had a dream-like village. They cut our wings and made us suffer. I wish, instead, that our forest was kept alive, and I was not on that list. We really believed that we could save our forest, fought hard, and did not give up, but with those trees, they also cut our happiness to live.”

During local elections in March 2024, Işık was elected as the village's first woman mukhtar or the village head.

Business interests

In Turkey, preserving green spaces is not a priority for the ruling party, which has no sound environmental policy.

The crackdown in 2013 against a group of environmentalists trying to prevent the destruction of Gezi Park was a defining moment, marking the AKP's anti-environmental turn. Since then, scores of protests have erupted across Turkey, often organized by local residents trying to protect the remaining green spaces and prevent the expansion of power plants. However, with a government that lacks any green vision, prioritizes the economy at the expense of the environment, and allows companies to fill their coffers at the expense of regular citizens, it is a struggle that is here to stay.

The deforestation in the Akbelen forest that began in July 2023 was a brazen example of this. The companies behind the forest destruction refused to comply with a court order that suspended the project in the first place.

The scale of destruction of forest areas over the last 10 years in Muğla was documented by one local media news platform, Fayn Studio, with a time-lapse video showing the gradual deforestation.

Meanwhile, AKP party ally, the National Movement party (MHP) at the time, accused the residents of the village of being provocateurs. In a statement, the leader of the MHP, Devlet Bahçeli, lashed out at the protesters, describing them as criminals and terrorists trying to “destroy the inner peace” at Akbelen. Ironically, the residents and all those who joined them accused the ruling government of doing the same.

Out of 35 coal-fired power plants worldwide, three are operating in Muğla — Yatağan (in operation since 1982), Yeniköy (in operation since 1986), and Kemerköy (in operation since 1993). All three were privatized in 2014. Yeniköy and Kemerköy were purchased by YK Energy, a joint company set up by Limak Holding and İÇTAŞ Enerji. Both Limak and İÇTAŞ are known for their ties to the ruling government.

Since taking over plant management, the companies have done little to address the devastating health and environmental implications of the plants. Local residents have documented these effects extensively in local and international reports. These implications also did not stop the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources from launching a new regulation in March 2022 that opened the natural olive groves in the area to development and green-lights mining activities for the power plants.

The same month, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change made amendments, for a fourth time, to a regulation governing protected natural areas (national parks, nature parks, environmentally protected zones, and wetlands), opening these areas for mining and construction. These decisions were announced amid an ongoing court case filed by the residents of İkizköy village. Dismissive of the protests by residents, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry handed over the 740 decares of forest land for lignite mining.

In a statement signed by 16 environmental non-governmental organizations at the time, the signatories said, “Deforestation should not be allowed for the continuity of thermal power plants, which cause premature deaths and are one of the main causes of the climate crisis. Fighting the climate crisis is possible by working with nature, not against it. We cannot sacrifice forests, which account for more than half of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions we have caused in the last 10 years, for the sake of coal power plants that threaten natural areas, climate, and the lives of all living things.”

In recent years, Turkey has been hit by a series of natural disasters and environmental crises such as drought, wildfires, floods, and mudslides, and in February 2023, a devastating earthquake. Reports of forest fires have been making headlines each summer. Experts say that while climate change or excessive weather conditions may have had a role to play, these disasters were also the result of poor planning and incorrect decisions made at the government level.

According to the Climate Transparency Turkey report, Turkey continues to generate more than 30 percent of its electricity through coal. The report adds, “Despite the decrease in coal-powered generation in 2021–2022, Turkey has no intention to phase out coal and has approximately 20.4 GW of new coal capacity in the pipeline, placing it sixth globally. In June 2022, the first block of the China-financed 1.3 GW coal power plant opened in Hunutlu. While the coal capacity pipeline decreased by 63 percent in comparison to 2020, to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius or achieve Turkey’s goal of net zero emissions by 2053, no new coal power plants should be built.”

Turkey only ratified the 2015 Paris Agreement, which set a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, in October 2021, five years after signing the agreement. At the time, Turkey also announced its goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2053.

According to Climate Action Tracker, the country's efforts to reach the Paris Accord's goals are “critically insufficient.” And ratifying the Paris Agreement was not done with pure intentions. The decision came shortly after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received guarantees of financial support from France, Germany, the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, according to reports by Politico and Reuters. Previously, Ankara said the reason it had not signed the agreement was unfair classification. Turkey was ranked as an Annex I group country — a “developed” or “industrialized” country — which prevented it from seeking funding, unlike nations ranked as “developing.”

For Işık, the struggle continues. “This is a battle for the right to live in peace in our small village, refusing what has been imposed on us. They destroyed half of our forest last year but didn’t find the coal they were hoping for. Still, we’ve never lost hope or determination,” she said in an interview with local media.

Written by Arzu Geybullayeva