British warship poisoned in İzmir

İlayda Sorku

The British Royal Navy warship HMS Bristol is in İzmir. The ship, which departed from Portsmouth, England, on 11 June, will be delivered to the LEYAL Shipbreaking company for dismantling. The ship is expected to arrive in Aliağa today.

The ship, which is reported to carry asbestos, petroleum derivatives, heavy metals, and other toxic substances, has drawn criticism from local residents and environmental activists. Speaking on behalf of the İzmir Shipbreaking Coordination, Aykut Akdemir, Secretary of the İzmir Provincial Coordination Committee (İKK) of the Turkish Chamber of Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), said, “This war machine, which protected British interests in the world's seas and served as the flagship in the Falklands War, has now declared war on Turkey's ecology.”

Akdemir emphasised that the ship is loaded with hazardous chemicals. These include numerous substances harmful to the environment and human health, such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), heavy metals, asbestos, petroleum derivatives and refrigerant gases.

SYSTEMATIC POLLUTION

TMMOB assessed the arrival of HMS Bristol not as an isolated incident, but as part of an ongoing policy. According to Akdemir, reports from the British Ministry of Defence show that 25 of the 31 Royal Navy ships decommissioned in the last 20 years were dismantled in Aliağa. Continuing his statement with the words, ‘Why are the UK and European countries sending their toxic waste to Turkey?’ Akdemir said, ‘Because labour is cheap in Turkey, and the cost of complying with environmental regulations is low. This makes Turkish companies “attractive” in tenders. But this financial advantage is turning into an ecological and social disaster for Turkey.’

WARNING ABOUT ‘BAŞTANKARA’

Reminding that the ‘baştankara’ method, which is banned in Europe, is used to dismantle ships directly in the sea, Akdemir stated that this method means that all hazardous waste is released into the sea, onto the beach and into the air without supervision. Emphasising the lack of transparency in the dismantling process, Akdemir said, ‘The “gas-free” or asbestos reports obtained from abroad do not reflect the truth. The deaths of seven workers in a gas explosion and the Otopan ship case are proof of this.’

CRITICAL FIRE

A fire broke out on a moored ship at the Şimşekler Shipbreaking Facility in Aliağa district of İzmir. It was reported that the 350-metre-long ship contained 50 tonnes of crude oil. The LNG tanker named Slough was decommissioned in 2017. The ship was brought to Turkey on 23 February 2023 but was kept waiting for dismantling for over two years. It was unclear whether the ship had obtained a gas-free certificate before being brought to Turkey and whether the waste inside had been cleaned up. In January 2022, the ship's former owner stated that there were 6,000 tonnes of waste on board and that the tanks had not been cleaned. These statements raised concerns.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled İngiliz savaş gemisi zehriyle İzmir’de, published in BirGün newspaper on July 4, 2025.