The Ecology Committee of the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) released a statement regarding the wildfires raging across Turkey and North Kurdistan which have claimed dozens of civilian lives and killed countless animals in various parts of the country in recent weeks.
The KCK Ecology Committee statement, which highlights the importance of collective struggle to guarantee the future in the face of all dangers and calls for the expansion of struggle, includes the following:
“Undoubtedly, the dire situation of forest fires cannot be explained by negligence or high temperatures, as claimed by the authorities. Just like the losses suffered in last year’s forest fires in Amed [tr. Diyarbakir] and Mêrdîn [tr. Mardin], today’s losses clearly reveal the state’s negligence. As expressed by our people who reacted after the losses, the sole responsible party for these heavy losses is the AKP government, which stood by and watched the fires. The failure to provide equipment for the workers who risked their lives to extinguish the fires, the failure to create safe working conditions, and the statements by government officials admitting that they stood by and watched the fires expose the government’s role in this catastrophe.
According to official data, over 3,000 forest fires have occurred in Turkey and Kurdistan this year, and at least 650 forest fires in June and July alone have destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of forest. Despite the fact that global warming is increasing every year and triggering forest fires, the AKP government has taken no measures against it. As in earthquakes, floods, mine collapses, and many other disasters, people were left alone in the forest fires, negligence occurred, and the government’s attitude led to new disasters and losses. The state, which has been allocating billions of dollars to war under the pretext of security for years and boasts of being one of NATO’s leading armies, cannot find the resources to extinguish forest fires. The AKP government, which is preparing to purchase billions of dollars’ worth of new warplanes and increase military spending, is content to merely observe the increasing forest fires.
The AKP government has been breaking records in ecocidal policies, not only through its negligence regarding forest fires, but also through its anti-nature and anti-people policies, which have caused the greatest destruction in years. Since coming to power, it has been expanding its profiteering policies by targeting the people’s water, forests, and livelihood lands through anti-society and anti-nature laws. With fires recurring daily, forests across Turkish provinces are being handed over to affiliated companies. In Şirnex [tr. Şirnak], forest destruction carried out by soldiers and the so-called village guards under state supervision have been ongoing for years and are spreading throughout the region of Botan. Laws enacted during the AKP government’s tenure, which allow forest lands to be handed over to energy and mining companies and burned areas to be stripped of their forest status and opened up for development, raise further questions about these fires.
The recent fires have shown that we cannot entrust our forests or our lives to a state that approves of ecological destruction, offers rivers, forests, and land to affiliated companies for profit, and fails to fulfill its responsibilities in the face of disasters.
So far, forest fires have been extinguished not by the state’s measures but by the intervention and self-sacrifice of the people who risked their lives. The current situation also shows that expectations from the state could worsen the toll in the event of another potential disaster. Therefore, as with all possible disasters, it is important to transform the self-sacrifice and solidarity shown by the people in the face of forest fires into a permanent, institutional organization. It is not the state that threatens our values that will save nature and life, but our organized struggle. Contrary to expectations, this irresponsibility and rent-seeking policies must be exposed and held accountable. These shared values, carried from the past to the present, can only be protected through solidarity, organization, and permanent institutionalization. The people who have shown this self-sacrifice can undoubtedly develop solutions to all problems by waging the ecological struggle that forms the basis of our future in the strongest possible way.
The losses we have suffered in forest fires and the ecological struggle to date remind us of our responsibilities and point to the urgent steps we must take. They highlight the importance of solidarity, struggle, organization, and action that we must develop throughout Kurdistan and Turkey. We must protect our water, our forests, and our land, which are our shared values. In the face of these massacres, as nature defenders, ecologists, intellectuals, youth, women, and all peoples living on this earth, we must expand the struggle everywhere and carry these values—our greatest inheritance—into the future without diminishing or consuming them. Collective struggle is the greatest guarantee of our future in the face of all dangers.”