Activists initiate legal campaign against hotel construction
Thursday, June 19, 2008
YAŞAR ANTERMUĞLA – Doğan News Agency
Environmentalists said yesterday they will take a company that dumped excess sand from a hotel construction site into the sea to court after the offending firm was given an additional year to complete the clean up project.
The Mavi Yol, or Blue Path, environmental organization, which represents close to 40 groups, has decided to initiate a legal battle to have the whole hotel project cancelled.
A day before the deadline given to MNG Holding to remove the sand from the Pina Peninsula in the Gulf of Güllük, the company was given a year to remedy the violation, said Mavi Yol spokeswoman Filiz Dizdar.
Bodrum Chamber of Trade President Gündüz Nalbantoğlu said many of the beaches and forests on the Mediterranean and Aegean coast are under attack from indiscriminate corporate dumping.
“If a plastic bag or some garbage is dumped by a boat, it gets a fine of YTL 5,000. However, companies that dump tons of waste and building materials receive insignificant fines and are rewarded with more time,” he said.
The company was given 85,000 square meters of land on the Pina Peninsula in 2006 in order to build a five star hotel with a 1,200-bed capacity. According to reports, the company then dumped excess earth from its construction site into the sea, apparently to build three piers on the beach because the sea was not suitable for swimming.
After the matter was taken up by newspapers, the local administrator suspended the dumping of earth and fined the company YTL 21,000. The company now has a year to get the necessary permission to continue construction of the hotel.
Dizdar said his group plans to wage a legal fight to annul the decision to open the Pina Peninsula to tourism and to allow a delay in the removal of the landfill.
“We will fight to ensure that the company that ruined the forest and the sea will end its presence in the region,” she said.
Warriors of Nature spokesman Zafer Murat Çetinbaş said the destruction of the natural environment near Bodrum could not have occurred without the knowledge of state officials.
A member of the Bodrum Citizens' Initiative, lawyer Ahmet Aksüt, said, “No one should doubt that the company will get the necessary license and build restaurants and hotel in the middle of the sea. Even Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay will be present in the opening ceremony. However, these people who ignore the law will definitely answer for their deeds in front of the court.”
He said a legal victory for environmental groups would pave the way for more campaigns against companies and civil servants who ignore such scandalous behavior.
When the issue first made headlines, the coordinator of the project for MGN, Sinan Karaağaçlı, was recorded as saying, “We filled the sea. We are a huge company and will get the permission afterwards. You know how things work in Turkey,” when asked about the matter while he was accepting an award from the local administrator for MNG's contribution to tourism.
http://turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=107603
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