According to official announcements, 9 workers were buried in a landslide at the Erzincan/İliç/Çöpler Gold Mine on February 13. Professional organizations point out that the loss of workers could be much higher. What happened in İliç is not only a massacre of workers. It is the destruction of ecology.
The fascist AKP/MHP government, which was caught red-handed in İliç, as a result of the reactions; the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change canceled the environmental permit and license certificate of the mine. Above all, this is nothing more than the fascist rentier regime’s efforts to hide its main crime and to escape responsibility for the massacre. The facts are obvious.
What happened in Iliç is a Massacre; The Fascist AKP/MHP Government is Responsible
A landslide is not a natural event; on the contrary, it is a massacre that was deliberately prepared with a blind eye. Not much more than a month ago, professional associations, experts, ecological organizations and movements drew attention to the possible developments in İliç. Just as they had done before with the Bakırtepe Gold Mine. They drew attention to the plunder and destruction of nature and its harm to human beings, as they did in Kazdağları, Gümüşhane, Dersim and in the struggle of villagers, laborers and ecological organizations against the Sao Paulo ship that was to be brought from Brazil to the Aliağa ship dismantling site.
The fascist AKP/MHP regime closed its ears to these, did not take the necessary measures and provided all the means and opportunities for the Anagold company to continue its profit-oriented production. A total of 1 billion incentives were offered in countless forms from tax deductions to loan incentives for the Tekel company to plunder nature. This is not limited to this. With legal regulations, all the necessary conditions have been created for the profit of capital, labor exploitation and the plunder of nature. The struggles and objections of ecology organizations and professional associations have also been suppressed and ignored with the aggression of fascism.
Despite all the warnings and scientific study reports of honorable scientists in favor of humanity and labor, this massacre was condoned. Just like what happened in the Soma Mine Massacre. Just as the warnings and calls of scientists before the February 6 earthquake were ignored: The bourgeoisie and their representatives, who put rent and maximum profit first, instead of building safe living spaces against earthquakes, allowed construction on fault lines and turned a blind eye to buildings built with deficient materials.
Although gold mining with cyanide is banned in many capitalist countries, in countries like Turkey, Northern Kurdistan and Africa, the destruction of nature and exploitation of human labor continues under the name of mineral exploration. Turkey and Northern Kurdistan is a paradise for Turkish capital and international monopolies for the cheap exploitation of labor and unlimited plunder of nature, with precarious work and the disorganization of workers. The international monopolies have flourished during the AKP period, and through privatizations, domestic and foreign tenders and agreements, taxation, favorable credit conditions, political support, they have grown in many fields from energy to construction, from media to telecommunications, and spread like an octopus in Turkey and Kurdistan. Today, the systematic massacres of workers, especially miners, and ecological massacres in all fields of production and services are the direct results of a capital accumulation regime. The neoliberal capital accumulation regime implemented in the world and in Turkey continues to exist precisely in this form.
Every license granted to companies to facilitate the further exploitation of monopolies means the plunder and destruction of nature as well as the brutal exploitation of workers and laborers. Turkey is a country that is attacked and plundered by international capital, especially in terms of gold mining.
For this reason, the Canadian SSR Mining, one of the international monopolies, established the Anagold mining company with an 80 percent capital investment stake, and together with Çalık Holding, is increasing its capital by melting the mountains of İliç with cyanide.
For this reason, all kinds of toxic waste materials, garbage and aspest ships of the world are transported to Turkey. While nature, people, environment and all living things, in other words ecology, are being destroyed, the fascist AKP/MHP government is increasing its rent and capital.
The fascist AKP/MHP and the bourgeois capitalist order are enemies of the worker-worker, human labor, and living humanely and with dignity. Capitalism continues its existence by plundering and exploiting labor and nature at the cost of creating destruction. For this reason, the fascist AKP/MHP government turned a blind eye to capital’s exploitation of labor and environmental destruction in İliç despite all scientific reports and the struggle of ecologists.
The monopolies and AKP/MHP are responsible for the massacre
What happened in Erzincan/Iliç is a crime against human beings, living things, nature and the peoples of the region. The international monopoly SSR, ANAGOLD company and its collaborator ÇALIK are the de facto responsible for the massacre of workers and nature in Erzincan. The fascist AKP-MHP government, its former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, Minister of Environment and Urbanization Murat Kurum and fascist Erdoğan are also responsible for this massacre.
The massacre is not the first and will not be the last!
What happened in İliç is not the first. Nor will it be the last unless we overthrow the fascist AKP/MHP regime, the capitalist order, which is the enemy of workers and laborers and the enemy of nature. We call on all organizations, institutions, professional associations, ecological organizations, revolutionary and progressive forces to take sides against this plundering, looting, worker-worker murderer fascist regime and to increase the united struggle.
The monopoly companies and the fascist AKP/MHP regime responsible for İliç will continue to be our target.
Our two hands will be on the killers’ necks!
We will hold the murdered workers to account!
HBDH Executive Committee
February 23, 2024