Some 30 tents were set up in the shade of pine trees, on the edge of the Akbelen Forest near the town of Mugla. At the entrance to the site, a quotation from Turkey's founding father, Mustafa Kemal, known as Atatürk, greeted visitors: "The peasant is the lord of the nation." The cicada song echoed and the smell of resin mingled with the humidity of Turkey's hot summer days. Here, in the southwest of the country, villagers and environmental activists have been taking turns for two weeks to protest against expropriations and the destruction of wooded areas around the village of İkizköy.

"We will never abandon our land!" shouted 54-year-old villager Aytaç Yakar into the microphone, to thunderous applause from the audience. Around the improvised kitchen and infirmary, some 60 people gathered in front of the camp to meet, talk and encourage each other. A powerful loudspeaker played songs by musician Özlem Özdil and the popular rock band Duman, with their lyrics of resistance, carefully selected for the occasion.

In the midst of the groups of young environmentalists, Aytaç and her neighbors from the village, were dressed in şalvar, the traditional baggy pants worn in the countryside, and wore floral scarves. They were easily recognizable. "They've blocked off access to our fields," said Güleren Demir, one of the residents of Akbelen, where she grew wheat and barley. "Where can I go? I have no money to buy a field or a house," she worried.

A few hundred meters away, beyond the blue police barriers erected around the site, clearing works continued. Heavy machinery got rid of the trunks of felled trees to the roar of chainsaws. At the beginning of July, the hill was still green, but it only took a few days to clear the forest canopy. Since July 17, work to extend the Limak coal mines resumed, and one by one, the trees have fallen, angering the local population.

A further 74 hectares of forest will be destroyed and 300 residents expropriated to feed the two thermal power plants at Yeniköy and Kemerköy, which supply 2.5% of the country's energy needs. Thousands of local residents will be affected by the mines' pollution, and the water tables supplying the seaside resort of Bodrum could be contaminated. For the activists, the impunity enjoyed by the holding company that owns YK Energy can only be explained by its close links to the government. Limak, like four other companies described by the opposition as the "mafia of 5," benefits from the favors of the presidency and regularly wins lucrative tenders.

You have 66.88% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.