Dersim Civil Society and Environmental organisations issued a joint-statement concerning the wildfires that the Turkish state started deliberately in the countryside of Dersim province.

The statement stressed that:

"Once again, wildfires have been started in many of our forests the moment military operations were launched, and the forces of the Turkish state prevent more than ever the people of Dersim from stopping the fire blazing up their forests. As if the plans and projects of Hydroelectric power plants (HES) led under security pretexts were not enough to devastate the nature of Dersim, systematically started wildfires by the state burn and destroy now our forests. Dersim is being turned into scorched earth by the hands of the state and collaborators."

The following details on the spreading fire have been shared in the statement:

"These wildfires do not only turn Dersim uninhabitable for humans but turn it into a death place for animals as well, and numerous endemic plant species are about to go extinct. A many-sided catastrophe is being caused by the systematic fires in Meçi area, Mezra village, Uzun Evler neighbourhood, surroundings of the Kaymaz hill and Dere Boyu village in Pülümür; Boydaş and Ali Boğazı regions in Hozat; Sarıtaş and Doğantaş regions in Nazimiye; countryside of Ovacık district and Elazığ’s Karakoçan district. The Gabar and Cudi mountains, too, are burning since 7 August."

Dersim's Civil Society and Environmental organisations underlined in their joint-statement that this kind of wildfires always follow military operations under the name of "fight against terror", and called on the state to abandon the politics that are nourished by conflicts, destruction of nature, national and religious assimilation, and stop this operational policy. We say No to forest fires, evacuation of villages, construction of dams and HES', and expect support from Turkey in these issues."

SIGNATORIES

The organisations that signed the official joint-statement are as follows:

Munzur Conservation Board (on behalf of DEDEF), Peri Water Conservation Platform (on behalf of KARDEF), East/South-East Associations Platform, Democratic Alevi Associations, Democratic Local Association Coordination, Munzur Nature Association, Pir Sultan Abdal Culture Association, Dersim Center of Studies, Peoples' Democratic Congress (HDK) Ecology Council, Yeşil Öfke Ecology Council, Senoz Valley Conservation Platform and Kayder Association.