The Turkish government has ordered a halt to construction work on a gold mine in a town near the Black Sea until the legal process is exhausted, in a rare concession to environmental protesters.
Yesterday Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu hosted in the capital Ankara a delegation from the Black Sea region to discuss controversial plans to build the gold and copper mine in the town of Cerrattepe in the Artvin region.
The premier hailed the two-hour meeting as “productive” and said that the government gave some assurances to the delegation for a peaceful solution to the stand-off.
“First of all, the mine operator will suspend its activities at Cerrattepe until a court verdict is delivered,” Davutoglu told a rally in the central Anatolian province of Konya after the meeting.
He told the rally in Konya – a bastion of his ruling AKP party – that everyone would then respect the court’s decision.
The project has been the subject of numerous legal complaints although it was not immediately clear which specific case Davutoglu was referring to.
Davutoglu assured that his government was open to any “well-intentioned” proposal to protect Artvin’s natural fabric.
But the prime minister warned: “We will restore public order within the rules of a state governed by rule of law. And within this framework, if a wrong step is taken we will do what’s necessary.”
Over the past weeks, thousands of Artvin residents have held protests against the project which would see an ancient forest razed to the ground.
While the suspension means the project could still ultimately go ahead, the decision marks a rare victory for Turkey’s environmental movement.
After protesters held nightly vigils in Artvin to protest against the project, the situation in the city was currently calm with activists awaiting the return of the participants in the Ankara meeting, an AFP photographer said.
Police had at the weekend fired tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters seeking to block the start of the construction work.
At least 26 were hurt in the clashes.
The conglomerate behind the project is the Cengiz Holding company, with its chief executive Mehmet Cengiz seen as a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The area close to the border with Georgia is seen as one of the most environmentally important in the country with its wet climate creating a lush landscape of extraordinary beauty.
But environmental organisations have branded the planned mine “illegal” and said it would ruin the surroundings.
Erdogan and the Turkish government are very wary of environmentally-motivated protests after grassroots demonstrations in 2013 against the redevelopment of Gezi Park in Istanbul’s Taksim Square snowballed into an uprising against his rule.