For months, not just days or weeks, Kurdistan and Turkey have been burning. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government’s long-standing practice of destroying forests in Kurdistan by cutting them down has now been extended to burning them as well. This land, described as “Paradise” in the holy books, is being annihilated by both logging and fire. Before our very eyes, our lungs are being destroyed in pursuit of reckless material gains.
Of course, forest fires are not limited to Kurdistan and Turkey; the entire world faces similar devastation. From Latin America to Europe and Asia, fires are darkening the future of all living beings. More importantly, the reactions to these alarming events that threaten our future remain largely weak. Most often, they linger in our memories only as painful images briefly watched on television screens.
Although a minority, there are indeed individuals and groups who approach these fires with great seriousness, struggling desperately against the destruction of the lungs of life. Yet, for now, it is clear that such efforts have not reached a level of sufficient impact.
Why, then, are the lungs of living beings so openly burned and destroyed? Answering this question is not difficult. Anyone who follows events even slightly can see the reasons. At the forefront lies global warming and climate change. Alongside this is the deliberate destruction of forests driven by profit-based policies. Negligence and carelessness, which emerge from unorganized and unconscious ways of life, also play a significant role.
When all these causes of forest fires are brought together, it becomes clear that their root lies in the global capitalist modernity system, which ties life to money and ever greater profits. The reckless pursuit of maximum profit by capitalism and industrialism not only threatens the future of humanity but also bears the potential to bring about the end of the planet itself. It appears as though the “Doomsday” described in holy books may unfold in this very way.
Undoubtedly, new layers are added to this general picture in Kurdistan: the genocide imposed on the Kurdish people and the war carried out on this basis. The genocidal attacks directed against the Kurdish people not only target the entire society, especially children, youth, and women, but also the very nature in which this society lives. Genocide does not continue solely through massacres, displacement, demographic engineering, and assimilation, but also through the deliberate destruction of the environment to make life itself uninhabitable.
For this reason, in past years, forest fires were often explained as being the result of “the war.” It was as if to say, “If there were no war, such incidents would not occur.” Yet in recent years, that war has significantly declined. In the current year, it has ended completely due to the “Peace and Democratic Society Process” initiated by Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan. At the very least, the Kurdish side first declared a ceasefire and later ended its armed struggle strategy, thus creating such a situation. However, despite this, forest fires and logging in the mountains of Kurdistan have not ceased; on the contrary, they have increased even further.
Why is this happening? The fact that it continues, despite the Kurdish side shifting its strategy towards democratic politics, means that the Republic of Turkey and, in particular, the AKP government, have not abandoned their genocidal assaults and war. This reality shows that the AKP government is engaged in a frenzied campaign of profiteering.
Although this frenzied profiteering is carried out most brutally in Kurdistan, the geography of Turkey is also subjected to similar practices. In this regard, the AKP government stands as the most profit-driven and nature-hostile administration in history. Undoubtedly, hostility towards nature also means hostility towards society, and especially towards women. The opposite is also true: the male-dominated mindset and politics that embody enmity against society and women simultaneously generate enmity against nature.
Consider this: for a handful of gold, an entire mountain is nearly destroyed. For a bit of energy, dams are built everywhere, wiping out the valleys that give life. Forests are cut down or set on fire to extract minerals or open settlement areas. In short, in the name of material gain and maximum profit, the heaviest assaults are carried out against human labor and the very source of human life, nature itself.
So far, we have tried to outline this brutality along with its causes. But what must be done to prevent it? Of course, the immediate responses are: “The mindset and politics that cause this must end,” or “The system that creates this must be dismantled.” These answers are indeed vital, and essentially, what is required is to cultivate strong ecological awareness and organization, and to rise up in action with a spirit of rebellion.
We also find this approach correct and, in essence, base ourselves on such a struggle. However, we believe that there are other things we must do in order to reach this goal. Especially by looking at the struggles against the fires, we draw two additional key conclusions.
The first is that human and social life and therefore nature, which forms the ground of this life, cannot be entrusted to the state. Yet the struggles against the fires in Kurdistan and Turkey show us that nearly the entirety of human and social life is left to the mercy of the state. The extent to which people rely on the state in the face of fires makes this reality clear. However, the state acts in the hands of profiteers and colonizers, serving their interests. Given this truth, entrusting individual and collective life so heavily to the state is one of the gravest and most detrimental conditions.
So, what must be done? Clearly, by correctly understanding the reality of the state, society, and life itself, we must develop a fully conscious, organized, and militant stance of ownership over both life and its source, nature. The mentality and attitude of expecting and demanding everything from the state under the narrative of “Father State” must come to an absolute end.
The second conclusion is that governance in Turkey cannot remain this centralized, and that neither Kurdistan nor the rest of Turkey can continue to be ruled entirely from Ankara. Consider this: can cities such as Istanbul, Izmir, or Adana, which have practically become countries in themselves, truly be governed from Ankara in their current form? Can regions such as Kurdistan, the Eastern Black Sea, or Thrace be effectively managed this way? The time has long passed to end the rigid Ankara-centered rule and to develop regional administrations while strengthening local governance.
Indeed, when the fires in Kurdistan are examined, it becomes clear that in almost every case, intervention could not be made in time because the tools controlled by the central government arrived too late. As a result, the forests of the mountains have been reduced to ashes. Local administrations consistently lament that they “do not have sufficient equipment” to respond to such disasters. A closer look immediately confirms this reality. This situation clearly shows that it is essential to end Ankara’s centralized rule, strengthen and equip local administrations, and redistribute governing power between the center and the localities.
We wholeheartedly salute all those who struggle to protect the forests against logging and fire!