Police Attacked Villagers after Protesting Thermal Plant

Residents of the Yaylık village stood up against the Anadolu Group and tried to stop workers from entering their village in order to hinder them from starting drilling works for the planned thermal power plant. The police reacted with a massive intervention and made use of tear gas and truncheons.

Three busses of gendarmerie officers stepped in against the villagers besides the police and amour-plated vehicles. Four people were injured and the gas reportedly ignited the nearby forest.

The Yaylık village belongs to Sinop, a city on the western coast of the Black Sea. Osman Belovacıklı, Mayor of Gerze as the responsible district for Yaylık, supported the residents. He declared that a thermal power plant was not going to be built in this area and that they were going to fight against it until the end. Many people from Gerze came to Yaylık to support the villagers.

The residents of Yaylık said from the very beginning that they were against the thermal power plant. In March 2010, they prevented a public meeting organized by the Anadolu Group in Gerze and made the workers leave their village.

They kept guard around the village to keep off drilling teams since August. A drilling team that wanted to enter the village on 24 August was stopped by the villagers.

Cömert Uygar Erdem, lawyer of the residents, previously put forward that the company lacked a production licence, a licence of the Ministry of Environment and that the Assessment of the Environmental Impact had not been completed yet. According to Erdem, the Anadolu Group pushed the issue upon the permission of the governorship only. Erdem drew attention to archaeological findings from the Roman and early Byzantine period and said that the region should be declared a historically protected area. (NV/VK)

* Sources: sendika.org, yeşilgaste.com, Etkin News Agency (ETHA), Radikal newspaper.