Village women up in arms to stop museum construction in Turkey’s Kütahya

KÜTAHYA

Around 300 village woman took up pickaxes, shovels, rakes and axes in order to halt construction of a museum on a pasture in the western Turkish province of Kütahya on June 2, Doğan News Agency has reported.

Women from Kütahya’s İnköy neighborhood blocked the Kütahya–Eskişehir highway in protest at the Archeology Museum construction plan.

They said they had for many years grazed their animals in the area and chanted: “We don’t want a museum.”

The villagers gathered on the highway with their animals to protest construction of the museum on the İnköy meadow opposite the Kütahya Bus Terminal.   

The protest caused an 8-kilometer tailback, with the women vowing to not allow traffic until the mayor and governor arrived at the scene. 

The highway was reopened to traffic one hour later after the arrival of Kütahya Governor Ahmet Hamdi Nayir at the scene.

Nayir invited the villagers to the Governor Office’s to evaluate the situation, saying they would discuss the issue and find a solution.