Black Sea villagers protest closure of post office

KASTAMONU

Villagers blocked the traffic with their cars and demanded that Kastamonu Governor Erdoğan Bektaş come to the village to discuss the problem. DHA photo

The locals of a Black Sea village blocked a highway in the Kastamonu province to protest the closure of a post office in their village.

Residents of İğdir village in the Araç district of Kastamonu blocked the highway between the Kastamonu and Karabük provinces for several hours on Sept. 4, in protest at the closure of a post office, Anadolu Agency reported.

Villagers blocked the traffic with their cars and demanded that Kastamonu Governor Erdoğan Bektaş come to the village to discuss the problem.

Gendarmerie forces intervened into the scene and called on the villagers to stop their protest. However, an official from the local mosque called on villagers to come out in support of the protest.

Araç local administrator Halil İbrahim Çelik told the villagers that Gov. Bektaş would visit the village and asked them to reopen the highway to traffic. 

“If you don’t have a solution after you open the road, I promise, I’ll join you. Trust me and open the road,” said Çelik. After this promise, the locals opened the road. 

Later on, Gov. Bektaş came to the village and addressed the villagers, saying that the post office might have closed down because its work load was too low. 

“If there is sufficient demand, then a PTT [post office] will be opened. I asked before you and was told that there is [enough] of a work load [to justify the opening]. So, the PTT will be open for five days per week,” said Gov. Bektaş. 

The villagers also complained about the lack of investment in their village, criticizing a recent decision turning the status of İğdir from a town to a village, Doğan News Agency reported. They said their demand to be included within the borders of Karabük, rather than Kastamonu, which they accuse of neglecting the city’s problems, was denied. 

Gov. Bektaş said there had been no official application in this regard, but the protesters said they would continue their protest if no action was taken to solve this problem.

In a separate development, around 100 villagers in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa’s Ceylanpınar district marched to the local administrator’s office to protest an electricity cut in their village. The villagers said their electricity had been cut for five days. 

District police chief Türker Yırtar talked to the villagers, who complained that they were lacking running water due to the electricity cut. The group then dispersed without any incident.