Ecocide continues in Kurdistan. Green-branded institutions established internationally remain silent in the face of this ecological destruction. Meanwhile, although there is a certain level of public sensitivity toward domestic animals, there is a prevailing silence about the extinction of certain species. Additionally, the road and landscape projects undertaken by democratic local governments also raise questions.

With the recent publication of his book "Third Nature" and his upcoming book "Ecological Destruction and Bleeding Valleys," former co-spokesperson of the Mesopotamian Ecology Movement and ecology activist Güner Yanlıç discusses his book, green institutions, environmental destruction in Kurdistan, and whether the landscape preferences of local governments are ecologically sound.

Your book Third Nature has recently been published. Can you tell us about it? 

Ecology is actually one of the weakest areas in terms of resources. So, even though I have been part of the ecological struggle for years, I realized it also needs to be supported with theoretical knowledge. About six years ago, when Yeni Yaşam newspaper began publishing, I started writing regular columns there. Around 75 or more of my columns on ecology have been published. Around 25 to 30 of my articles also appeared in the paper Gazete Karınca. I have also written a few ecological columns in other newspapers.

While I was trying to fill this gap through articles, I had the idea of a book, a simple, comprehensive explanation of ecology. The book "Third Nature" emerged from this idea, built upon the experience of panels we held, the newspapers I worked with, and my columns.

Ecology has always been a field that is either hard to understand or overly academic, filled with elite jargon. I wrote the book in a way I personally understood it. At the very least, I tried to explain basic concepts like “What is ecology? What is it not?” using simple language and current data. I wanted to contribute a building block to the ecological struggle as a resource.

One of the topics in your book is the concept of green-branded institutions. How would you define these institutions, or what would you like to say about them?

Before I joined the ecological struggle, I was also a "green person" in the conventional sense. In Amed (Diyarbakır), a few nature-loving friends and I founded a reforestation association. Like most people, we believed that problems could be solved by planting trees, picking up trash, polluting and consuming less. So we carried out that work at the time. But the more I carried on, the more I saw the issue was much more paradigmatic. It’s a struggle that has been ongoing since the ideological divide between socialism and capitalism that began in the 1950s.

These green-branded institutions we’re talking about are extensions of the post-WWII system designed by an American politician named Marshall as part of a new world order. This system established global institutions in every field. The umbrella organization of the green-branded institutions we talk about is the United Nations. Its subsidiaries include UNESCO, UNICEF, UNHCR, and so on.

The system occupied every area in which we might have tried to struggle 50 years ago, and now presents us with this: “We are already doing this work. Either join us under our framework or stay home, we’ve got it covered.” Morally, many of us support these NGOs financially, emotionally, or as volunteers. But ultimately, these green-branded institutions prioritize the continuity and sustainability of the system. They do not conduct any real work toward building an ecological society or preventing ecological destruction.

For instance, during the conflict in Sur, Amed, we made repeated calls to UNESCO to protect the city under its care—but they never came. When the Dersim forests were burning, when tree cutting and forest fires continued for years in Şırnak, when the destruction in Hewsel went on, we called on UNESCO. We said, “You claim to protect these areas, do your job!” But they never responded to a single one of our calls.

Ilısu Dam and Hasankeyf meet UNESCO’s criteria. Despite fulfilling eight out of ten, UNESCO never claimed responsibility for the area.

Now we see that UNESCO claims responsibility on Amed Suriçi. That’s because it has opened up a new zone of profit and exploitation for capital. So UNESCO continues its work to serve industrial tourism. What we’re saying here is that we define many organizations like UNESCO, UNICEF (which claims to protect children), UNHCR (which claims to protect refugees), and the World Health Organization as greenwashed institutions. We have both practical and theoretical reasons to criticize these organizations, including UNESCO.

Based on the examples you gave, we saw how these efforts are romanticized. In your view, why does the capitalist system take this route? Why does it feel the need to romanticize the ecological struggle?

Let’s call it environmental work. Say, the polar ice caps are melting. That’s not actually a big deal for the capitalist system. What matters to them is the sustainability of exploitation. For example, if polar bears go extinct, it would disrupt the population balance and affect their exploitation, so they protect the polar bears.

But outside polar bears, dozens of species go extinct every day, and they don’t care. They give us misleading data and distractions: picking up trash, not littering, reducing pollution, and maybe the most recent trick, measuring your carbon footprint or consuming less. In many of these ways, they are actually deceiving us.

This deception is based on exploiting our goodwill and conscience. These so-called efforts are being carried out under that pretext. So, yes, the most influential environmental movement in the world today is actually funded and directed by the system, defining its policies and scope of action. It’s a mindset that treats people, nature, women, and children as commodities and serves the exploitative machinery of capitalism. That’s why, based on these reasons, we distance ourselves from mainstream environmentalism.