CHP leader criticizes gov’t over environment policies

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on June 15 criticized the government’s way of dealing with environmental issues and urged it to take immediate measures against the marine mucilage, or “sea snot,” blanketing shorelines across Turkey’s Marmara Sea.

“They used the Sea of Marmara as a settling pool, all chemical wastes and pollutants were discarded there. The discharge must be stopped immediately,” he said at the CHP’s parliament group meeting.

“First, there were mass fish deaths in the Sea of Marmara. Then the sea turned red. Then the Marmara Sea turned green. Later, jellyfish invaded the Marmara Sea. There were 124 species of fish in the Sea of Marmara. Most of them are gone,” he stated.

Kılıçdaroğlu stressed that the country must leave a beautiful world to future generations.

“Protecting the rights of nature is protecting justice. Cities have been betrayed, Istanbul has been betrayed. Greenery has been destroyed. It turned out to become a concrete jungle,” he added.

Citing a recent physical attack on the mayor of the Aegean town of Didim, a CHP member, Kılıçdaroğlu said the reason for the incident was the municipality’s decision to demolish two towers which he said was not constructed properly and in line with the environment of the district.

The mayor did not want Didim to be “betrayed,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.