Private Security, Villagers Clash Over Construction In Olive Groves

Villagers clashed with private security guards on Tuesday morning in reaction to bulldozers entering olive groves to cut the trees for the construction of a thermal power plant in the Soma district of Manisa province.

On Tuesday morning, around 80 villagers saw four bulldozers and 100 workers go to the olive groves and proceed to cut down the trees. The construction workers wrecked nearly 1,000 trees, and clashes then ensued between the villagers and the workers.

A total of 11 villagers were handcuffed by security guards of the Kolin Group of Companies, the business behind the thermal power plant project. One of the protestors, Greenpeace member Olcay Bingöl, was hit with tear gas as well. The gendarmerie then took the 11 protestors from the custody of the Kolin security guards and took them to the hospital, while still in handcuffs. The villagers have since filed an assault complaint.

Furthermore, as this is the third thermal power plant to be constructed in Soma, residents held protests on Sept. 1. Despite environmentalists also having filed a lawsuit against the rushed permission granted, Kolin proceeded to put up wire fencing around the olive groves.

A 34-year-old farmer, Oktay Uyan, who was beaten by Kolin company security guards, shared his experience, saying: “In the early morning, company workers entered the olive groves with their excavators. We intervened to prevent them from cutting down the olive trees. But they handcuffed us.”

Another villager, 18-year-old Ercan Demir, said: “They threw us to the ground. The hit us with batons and kicked us. A private company's security does not have the authority to handcuff us.”

Republican People's Party (CHP) Manisa deputy Özgür Özel gave a public statement on the matter, saying: “For three, four days there has been silence, the olive trees were not being cut down; but in the early morning hours, bulldozers and workers with chainsaws accompanied by their own security guards entered the land and began to cut down the olive trees. The villagers have been assaulted. The Kolin Group of Companies, who have never held any regard for the laws of the Turkish Republic, have assaulted, handcuffed and hurt villagers have begun to cut down trees here.”

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)