PRESS RELEASE 15th of June, 2011, Ankara We will not give Anatolia to energy cartels, finance giants and

to multinational corporations!

Our struggle continues while the 17th Energy and Environment Fair and Conference is looting and selling Anatolia. There is an initiative that has left no untracked territory in Anatolia since April 2011, who gives a voice to the problems faced by the real owners of Anatolia, and who questions the environmental policies which are lacking in foresight. We marched towards Ankara from seven different places. In Glba -district of Ankara-, we faced the police, although we wanted to meet the respondents of our demands. We r e s i s t e d f i r s t i n Glba, later in Ankara, we are still resisting. Since the day we started o u r resistance, we have protested loudly that we will not give our soil, our water, our mountains, our valleys, our creeks, our seas and our forests. The response we had from the authorities was that, we-in other words, the people of Anatolia- are not the owners of the water, the mountains and valleys of Anatolia. The Energy and Natural Resources Minister of the 60th government, Mr. Taner Yldz has confirmed the legitimacy of our struggle with his own words: They shout loudly that they are not giving Anatolia. I wonder who you think you are not to give Anatolia! These words show a deep distortion of perception. According to his opinion, the public authorities elected by the people of Anatolia take hold of the possession of all natural resources in Anatolia at the same time. The Great March of Anatolia was not permitted to access Ankara with their 'excuse' of blocking the traffic in the city. We have been taken into custody via arbitrary procedures. Metin Lokumcu, whose only intention was to draw attention to the slaying of nature in Anatolia, was killed in a demonstration in Artvin. The young worker, Nuhbey Bozdoan, aged 23, lost his life during a controlled (!) dynamite explosion for the construction of an HES (Hydroelectric Power Plant) in spir, Erzurum. The people of Ktahya praise everyday they live under the permanent threat of cyanide. Under these circumstances, the whole of Anatolia continues to be marketed to energy cartels, to finance giants and to multinational corporations. Anatolia, with its people, is being sentenced to death with the accompaniment of glamorous ceremonies, fake smiles and phony applauses. W i t h i n t h e a g e n d a o f t h e 1 7 t h E n e r g y a n d E n v i r o n m e n t Fa i r a n d C o n f e r e n c e , s e v e r a l p u b l i c institutions such as the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources; the Ministry of Environment and Forests as well as EPDK (The Board of Arrangement for Energy Market) are getting together with multinational companies, energy and construction cartels of Turkey, HES institutions and the banking sector. They are determining the new HES facilities, nuclear power plants to be built, the new mines to be dug, the new forests and creeks to be privatized. This organization does not even consider maintaining a low profile in its aims and continues to host Mutual Business Meetings in order to bring Turkish

companies together with multinational corporations which will undoubtedly result in widening the destruction of nature. The topics defined under the title of preserving the environment only serves to sustain the exploitation of nature. Despite all obstacles, we, as the We Will Not Give Anatolia will continue our duty and repeat our necessary warnings:

1. Current patterns of production and consumption are the leading obstacles against the sustainability of nature.

2. In this context, precautions such as recycling, emission trade, energy savings and alternative energy forms are not functioning and they only serve to disorient public opinion. The only way of preserving the environment is to abandon these forms of production and consumption which currently have no boundaries.

3. Nuclear energy is not something like an LPG cylinder. It has severe, acute and irreversible results which cause the end of all life forms in its surrounding area. The only way of using nuclear energy safely is not to build any nuclear power plants at all. In addition to all these threats, the energy produced by nuclear plants will increase the consumption of energy and accelerate the waste of all natural resources.

4. HES projects which threaten the whole ecosystem, the traditional patterns of production and living, and the cultural and historical richness of Anatolia; as well as all mining activities; privatization of forests; investments in nuclear and thermic energy and unplanned logistics should all be terminated immediately.

Lastly, we want to declare the name and winner of a new category which has been somehow forgotten to be included in the Energy Oscars, which will be awarded in Turkey for the first time within the 17th Energy and Environment Fair and Conference. We want to declare this category and its winner: Energy Oscar for Best Neoliberal Collaborator goes undoubtedly to Mr. Taner Yldz, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. The esteemed Mr Yildiz may receive his award from the new urban poor who were forced to evacuate their village due to the flooding of their territory via HES projects; or from the forest villagers who cannot find any wood for fuel in the recently privatized f o r e s t s ; o r f r o m the farmers whose crops have been left in the fields due t o imported G M O s (genetically modified organisms); or from the people of Anatolia who cannot stop the cyanide mining activities in their regions despite numerous court decisions against such activities. We want to declare this to the real owners of Anatolia and to public opinion.

We will not give Anatolia!

The Marchers of Anatolia