Turkish activists demand government call off nuclear plans

Friday, June 3, 2011
ERISA DAUTAJ ŞENERDEM

Turkish environmental activists have set up camp in Istanbul’s central Taksim Square, announcing they will not leave until the Turkish government calls off its plans to build nuclear power plants.

The 40-odd activists from Greenpeace Mediterranean called for all “sensible” people to join their peaceful resistance.

“Our aim is to raise awareness among Turkish people on the nuclear issue and its risks, as well as to make politicians take related action,” Uygar Özesmi, the director-general of Greenpeace Mediterranean, told the Hürriyet Daily News in an interview at the square.

“As the general elections approach, we more and more understand political parties consider every one of us a number, a vote. However, we are not just a vote,” Özesmi said, noting that the group had been struggling for a long time against Turkey’s nuclear plans.

Some 64 percent of Turkish people are against the construction of a nuclear power plant in the country, according to a survey Greenpeace conducted in cooperation with the A&G research company that was published April 29. The survey also found that 86 percent of Turks do not want to live near a nuclear power plant.

“The Turkish government is silent like a wall [despite all these figures], and has not yet given up its nuclear plans. This is not how the people’s voice is heard in a democratic state,” Özesmi said. On the contrary, he added, the government had finished a contract for building a nuclear plant in Mersin’s Akkuyu district, something he said violates domestic and international law.

“Although two-thirds of Turkish people are against nuclear, we see nuclear [plans] are still among the promises in the parties’ electoral programs,” Ümit Şahin, the co-spokesman of Turkey’s Green Party, told the Daily News on Friday at Taksim Square.

He added that he was surprised how the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, had been unable to directly oppose the nuclear plans. “They say they will go to a referendum [on the issue] if they become the ruling party, but they do not express an official position pro or against nuclear [power],” Şahin said.

Environmental activists decided to hold their open-ended protest in Taksim Square ahead of the June 12 general election so that the political parties would become sensitive toward the issue, according to Şahin. “The prime minister has to at least say publicly he is aware of the fact that the majority of Turkish society does not want the nuclear [plants], and [the government] must give up its nuclear plans,” he said.

“We want the government to withdraw from its nuclear plans. It is a difficult target, but we will not give up,” said Nuran Yücel, an activist with the Global Action Group, which has also joined the protest in Taksim.

Many countries have announced a scaling back of their nuclear plans, following the nuclear reactor disaster in Fukushima, Japan.

According to Greenpeace Mediterranean, Japan has canceled the construction of 14 new reactors, while Switzerland has canceled its plans for three new nuclear reactors and announced it will close all its nuclear power plants by 2034. The German government has closed seven plants and plans to gradually inactivate all its plants by 2022. The Chinese government has also temporarily suspended its nuclear power plant plans, while the nuclear issue was brought to a referendum in Italy.

The Turkish government is meanwhile moving ahead with plans to construct a nuclear power plant about 20 to 25 kilometers away from the Ecemiş earthquake fault line in the southern district of Akkuyu.

Source: Hürriyet.
Link: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=activists-ask-the-government-to-quit-nuclear-plans-2011-06-03.