Erdoğan's protested quarry project providing opportunity for opposition - NY Times

A quarry project championed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his native northern Rize province has sparked protests from locals, while providing the opposition a new platform to rally against the leader, the New York Times said on Saturday.

The protests against the project, which began last month, are notable because they erupted in a stronghold of Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), it said, and opponents are using demonstrations as an opportunity to undermine the Turkish leader, whose support is fading over an ailing economy and the fallout of from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Police have intervened on protests by locals for months in the village of İkizdere against the quarrying in İşkencedere Valley. Protesters, who maintain the project - will destroy 220 acres of woods essential resource for the rural district - have seen support from opposition and celebrities.

“This is our paradise,” a local resident Güngör Baş told the NY Times. “We used to drink from the stream. But for the last 10 days, we have to drink bottled water.”

According to Yakup Okumuşoğlu, an environmental lawyer representing the villages, such projects “ are designed to make money,” and do not provide  “progress for the people.”

The villagers are also upset because they were never consulted on the project, NY Times said, taken on by two of Turkey’s largest construction firms with close ties to the government. 

“This has been happening all around the country. But until it happened to us, we did not understand the pain,” local Gürdere resident Mustafa Tatoğlu said.

Turkey's main opposition party has backed the protests, but the government has been quick to dismiss their stance as intervention.

Turkish Transportation Minister Adil Karaismailoğlu has labelled as false rumours criticism that large businesses are taking priority and the government and law enforcement are in the service of the construction companies, as opposed to the people.