In the Kurdish province of Dersim (tr. Tunceli), numerous people demonstrated on Sunday against environmental destruction and the exploitation of natural resources. Under the slogan “We will not allow overexploitation and greed – we will win, life will prevail,” the crowd first gathered in the artists’ quarter and then marched with banners and slogans to Seyit Rıza Square.
The demonstration was promoted by the “Platform for Nature, Life, and the Environment,” which opposes ongoing encroachment on the region’s natural environment. Among other things, it criticizes mining projects, the construction of dams, and legislative proposals that, in the initiative’s view, encourage the overexploitation of the environment and resources.
The demonstrators carried placards with slogans such as “No to mining in Geyiksuyu,” “Hands off my water, my land,” “No access to the sacred,” and “No to the plundering law.” In Kurmancî and Turkish, they also drew attention to their concerns with slogans such as “Dersim is not defenseless,” “The city belongs to us, the land belongs to us—we will defend it,” and “We will win through resistance.”
Accompanied by slogans, music, and dancing, the participants waited on Seyit Rıza Square for the rally to begin.