The struggle for “life”: anti-mining mobilisation in Turkey (original) (raw)

2024, Interface: a jornal for and about social movements

In recent years, people across the globe unite against the neoliberal agenda of relentless commodification of commons. In the different parts of the world, from the Global South to Western Europe, people are united around the aim of protecting living spaces in an ecologically encompassing way against the rent`- seeking policies of neoliberalism, including Turkey. Many different ecological movements have been rising that oppose the enclosure of commons and extensive environmental degradation despite the repressive practices of the government party in Turkey. The anti-mining movement in Artvin, in the Northeast part of Turkey, is one of the long-lasting environmental movements in Turkey. The movement achieved an extensive mobilization of the local population comprising a cross-section of different ages, genders, class and political opinions to defend the local ecosystem, which is part of the wider Black Sea and Caucasus ecosystem, against the government-supported mining project. This study examines the environmental conflicts in Turkey by looking at dynamics of mobilization with a particular focus on Artvin.