Capital work in full swing in Parliament

Ada Sude Atak

The omnibus bill, which aims to accelerate energy and mining activities in living spaces, began to be discussed in the Turkish Grand National Assembly General Assembly. Life defenders gathered in front of Parliament to protest the bill, which primarily targets olive groves and forested areas. The bill, which paves the way for the destruction of olive groves and pastures, was passed by the Parliamentary Commission a few days ago.

Yesterday, the bill began to be debated in the TBMM General Assembly. Environmental activists, who have been stationed at the Parliament since the bill was referred to the committee, gathered again at the Parliament yesterday. Speaking at a press conference held in front of the Parliament, Nejla Işık, the village head of İkizköy in Muğla Milas, reacted to the situation, saying, ‘They are trying to silence the voices of the villagers, but they will not succeed.’ Işık stated that they do not accept the law and will continue to fight for the forest areas and olive groves, saying, ‘As we have been saying for the past two weeks, we do not accept this collapse law, but they stubbornly refuse to hear our voices.’

They hear us, but they don't care. While companies were being admitted to the Grand National Assembly, walking around freely, we villagers were only six people, and we were banned from entering the Assembly. We ask you, isn't this the people's assembly? Is it the assembly of companies, or the assembly of villagers, of citizens?

OUR DEBT TO OUR CHILDREN

A citizen from Aydın said, “This is not just my debt, but the debt of the entire nation, the people. This is our debt to our children. If we retreat, if we don’t fight, if we don’t resist, if we don’t struggle, they will take everything we have. I don't want to give up my village, my sheep, my water, my home. If they take me away from my village, think of me as a tree or a plant—I will wither and die."

OUR GOLD IS HAZELNUTS

Speaking on behalf of the people of Ordu, who have been struggling with the pollution caused by the gold mine for many years, a citizen named Cevat showed the hazelnuts he had brought in a bag and said, “I have brought you Ordu’s gold. Our gold is hazelnuts. They have mined three thousand acres in Ordu. It generates 13 million in revenue. If you plant hazelnuts here, you’d make five or ten times that profit, benefiting the country. Even if you gave five times the 13 million lira, we couldn’t clean up this mess in Fatsa. This law isn’t just for Mugla residents—it applies to the entire country. Where is Turkey? Where is the people? This law will affect all of us.”

‘CARBON TRADING LAW’ HAS BEEN PASSED

Like yesterday's omnibus bill, which facilitates the exploitation of forest and olive grove areas for profit, another law that will open the door to capital has been passed by the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Although the law claims to promote activities to ‘combat climate change,’ environmentalists describe it as a ‘carbon trading law.’ Following the approval of the bill, TEMA made a post on its social media account. In the post, TEMA Foundation stated, ‘Nature and humanity are the losers,’ and emphasized that they do not view the law approved by the Assembly as a climate law, but rather as a regulation of the emissions trading system.

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Meclis’te sermaye mesaisi tam gaz, published in BirGün newspaper on July 4, 2025.