Thousands protest thermal power plant

Thousands of people protested the plan to construct a thermal and nuclear power plant in the Black Sea town of Gerze in Sinop province Nov. 26.

Co-organized by Greenpeace, Sinop Environment Platform and Green Gerze Environment Platform, the protest included nearly 8,000 people carrying placards reading, “Thermal company, leave our Sinop,” “Gerze people are not for sale” and “We don’t want death chimneys.”

“While the whole world is abandoning nuclear power plants, we have difficulty understanding why our country is so insistent in building them. We want to raise our children in clean and natural air. We want to be able to swim in our seas, wander in our forests and breathe clean air,” said Gerze Mayor Osman Belovacıklı, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Village Headman Ahmet Tiryaki from the village Yaykıl, where the thermal power plant is planned to be built, said their struggle against the thermal power plant has taken three years. “The power plant in our Yaykıl village will cover settlements, environmentally protected areas, agricultural lands, green forests and the sea,” Tiryaki said. “For this reason, we will never leave this place and allow the thermal plant.”

Around 400 police officers took security measures during the protest.