President Erdoğan emphasizes 'Green Homeland': We have made 5 decisions.

02.06.2025 14:01

President Erdoğan spoke at the "Green Homeland Heroes on Duty" program at Etimesgut Airport. He stated, "In the last agricultural council, we made 5 decisions aimed at preserving and enriching every aspect of the green homeland. Our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will soon turn these decisions into an action plan and implement each one."

Here is the translated HTML content with the text and the `title` and `alt` attributes of the `img` tags translated into English:



```html

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made statements at the "Green Homeland Heroes on Duty" program at Etimesgut Airport.

Erdoğan stated, "We made 5 decisions aimed at preserving and enriching the green homeland in all its aspects" and added, "Our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will turn these decisions into an action plan very soon, and hopefully, each one will be implemented."

Highlights from Erdoğan's speech are as follows:

I pray to Allah for Rahim Demirbaş, who stood out with his afforestation activities and whom we bid farewell to eternally, that is, our Forest Grandfather. Rahim Demirbaş was a distinguished name who earned a place in everyone's heart with his love for forests.

By the way, I remember with mercy and gratitude our brothers who fell as martyrs while fighting forest fires and floods. As humanity, we are facing an increasingly painful picture.

"UNDERGROUND AND ABOVEGROUND RESOURCES MUST BE USED EFFECTIVELY"

The effective and sustainable use of underground and aboveground resources constitutes one of the fundamental priorities for countries. Of course, we are also facing all these problems. One of our greatest riches, our forests, is under threat. Increasing temperatures and droughts pose serious threats to our forests.

On July 25, 2024, we experienced the hottest day in 145 years. We are now fighting more destructive forest fires. These fires also destroy settlements. They lead to economic losses and longer-term damages and effects. Data shows that 2025 will be hotter. If the temperature is very high, it is vital not to light a fire in open areas near forests. Lighting a fire in such situations is an invitation to disaster. If it is not negligence, it is a great betrayal. May God protect our country from all kinds of disasters.

"WE HAVE COVERED 30% OF OUR COUNTRY WITH FORESTS"

We have taken historic steps in environmental and nature conservation efforts. We have worked with all our might to hand over nature to our children in the best way possible. We crowned our efforts in the sky homeland and blue homeland with our works and projects aimed at the green homeland. We have increased our forests to 23.4 million hectares. We have covered 30% of our country with forests. Since 2002, we have planted more than 7.5 billion saplings all over our paradise homeland. We have enabled millions of our citizens to plant saplings. We ensure the afforestation of areas damaged by fires by the following year.

Photos after the fires are disinformation. A significant portion of these belongs to distorted, invasive ugly construction projects of opposition municipalities, which are being used to slander our forest efforts. I see these as insults to our forest heroes. I call on everyone to stay away from such irresponsibility that casts a shadow on our efforts.

"WE HAVE TAKEN HISTORIC STEPS"

We have taken historic steps in environmental and nature conservation efforts. We have worked with all our might to hand over nature to our children in the best way possible. We crowned our efforts in the sky homeland and blue homeland with our works and projects aimed at the green homeland. We have increased our forests to 23.4 million hectares. We have covered 30% of our country with forests. Since 2002, we have planted more than 7.5 billion saplings all over our paradise homeland. We have enabled millions of our citizens to plant saplings. We ensure the afforestation of areas damaged by fires by the following year. Photos after the fires are disinformation. A significant portion of these belongs to distorted, invasive ugly construction projects of opposition municipalities, which are being used to slander our forest efforts. I see these as insults to our forest heroes. I call on everyone to stay away from such irresponsibility that casts a shadow on our efforts.

"WE HAVE MADE 5 DECISIONS TO ENRICH THE GREEN HOMELAND"

While supporting our forest villagers, we also supported regional development. We provided many new opportunities. We stood by our citizens who want to produce while staying in their villages. In 21 years, we provided 35 billion in loans and grants to 285,000 families living in forest villages. This year, we are providing support to 12,000 families. We made 5 decisions to enrich the green homeland in all its aspects. Our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will turn these decisions into an action plan. We will also follow the implementation of these decisions that will strengthen our forestry activities.

"WE HAVE MADE SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST FOREST FIRES IN THE LAST 23 YEARS"

In the last 23 years, we have made significant progress in the fight against forest fires. With our air and ground forces and our equipment, we have achieved successes. We have increased our aerial firefighting efforts to 27 planes and 105 helicopters, totaling 438 tons. We detect and intervene in fires early with technology.

Our fire trucks and equipment are on standby, ready for duty 24/7. When we took office, there was no first response vehicle. We built 4,296 fire ponds and pools to allow our air vehicles to take water more quickly in fire incidents. In this way, we expanded our qualified human resources. We have added 8,500 personnel to our forestry organization.