VAN (DİHA) – TMMOB Van Provincial Coordination Board met with Erciş mayors to draw attention to the damage to the nature of the 4 HEPP projects planned to be built in Zilan Creek and to search for ways to prevent the projects.
TMMOB Van Provincial Coordination Board, which took action against the nature massacre to be created by 4 different HEPP projects planned to be built in the Zilan Stream in the Erciş district of Van, met with the co-chairs of the Erciş Municipality after the investigations they carried out in the region. During the visit, TMMOB HRC Secretary Şemsettin Bakır, Chamber of Agricultural Engineers Branch President Murat Demir, Chemical Engineers Chamber Branch President Cevat Boz and many architects and engineers were present. Şemsettin Bakır, who took the first floor in the visit, explained with examples how the HEPPs built in the Black Sea and the region’s geography caused natural damage, and stated that the HEPP to be built in Zilan will also destroy the Zilan nature.
Stating that they are against the HEPPs to be built in Zilan and that they will start a fight against it, Bakır asked for support from non-governmental organizations and municipal institutions in Erciş.
‘We set up tents there and we keep watch’
Ercis Municipality Co-Mayor Diba Keskin said, “They killed our past here years ago and now they started to slaughter our nature. We will never allow this.” Emphasizing that they will not sign any permits for the HEPP as the municipality, Keskin said, “If necessary, we will carry out our municipal activities in the areas where the HEPP will be built. We will set up tents there and keep watch. But we will never and never allow HEPPs that will kill our nature.
‘Zilan’
Underlining that the ecological damage caused by HEPPs in Turkey is growing day by day, Erciş Municipality Co-President Abdurahman Çağan stated that they saw the damage caused by the HEPPs in Muradiye district right next to them. Noting that they are against HEPPs, Çağan said, “We will never and will never allow HEPPs to be built in Zilan.”
‘This will dehumanize Zilan’
Chamber of Agricultural Engineers Van Branch President Murat Demir stated that the nature of Zilan is 100 percent agricultural land, and that the HEPPs to be built here will seriously harm agriculture. Stating that the people of the region earn their living from agriculture and animal husbandry, Demir said, “If HEPPs are built in the region, the people of Zilan will have to migrate from Zilan after a while. This will make Zilan unmanned”.
