The responsibility and irresponsibility of the state in forest fires

* Photo: Mahmut Serdar Alakuş / AA

Click to read the article in Turkish

Even though I don't really feel like doing it, I would like to say a few words about the responsibility of the state in the context of forest fires.

Because I cannot stand the images anymore, I feel desperate and incapable. My country, my world is burning. Trees and animals are disappearing, humans are dying, the ecosystem is collapsing.

First of all, fires are caused by the human factor. Cigarettes, barbeque, a piece of glass left in the forest, arson... We are responsible. We, humans... But it is the state which does not take the necessary measures, which is late to intervene in the fires, which cannot manage the crisis properly, which is late to ask for help, which does not accept the offers of help, which has eliminated the Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK), which has given the tenders to pro-government companies and which cannot properly use the inventory despite million-dollar budgets.

No matter how much Presidency's Communications Director Fahrettin Altun and Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli have tried to whitewash the state and how much their supporters accuse the Republican People's Party (CHP), the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) or the opposition in general, they have, in fact, shown the incapability of the state.

Everyone around me is of the opinion that "they have burned forests". They say such things, they believe that forests have been arsoned. A significant factor behind this belief is that they follow the media outlets controlled by the government. In fact, with its news reports, the mainstream media, which is dominated by the government, is making efforts to relieve the state of responsibility and to put it on illegal organizations.

Saying that the forests have been burned by the 'Children of the Fire', by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), this or that person or organization, putting the responsibility on the shoulders of others is nothing other than the state's efforts to blame others for its own mistakes or a PR stunt.

Similarly, just as saying that forests were been burned by them doesn't whitewash these organizations, this debate is doing nothing other than catering to the divergence from the main issue for now.

While the THK was being undermined

Let's finally come to the issue of the Turkish Aeronautical Association (THK). It has already been discussed for days. Almost everything that must be said has already been said. But I can still say the following about how the THK is made non-functional: The most significant factor is the government. So, the Justice and Development Party (AKP)... A political party turning into a state...

The THK, which is on a secular line, has been rendered non-functional in cooperation between the then "Gülen community" or the current "Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ)" and the AKP.

Granted the right to collect animal skins during the Sacrifice Feast / Eid al-Adha for years, the THK has been deprived of this right. Its revenue items have been ruled out one by one. In fact, the tender for firefighting efforts was not given to the THK in 2019, which has been the final blow.

Having found itself in financial trouble, the THK faced an administrative crisis. Its members resigned, one after the other. They were replaced by AKP's trustees. The trustee, amid demands for an election, has not even brought it to the agenda. To top it all, he has put the immovables of the THK on sale, assuming it as his responsibility to ruin the institution.

In 2019, when the planes were still operating and could still fly and when the pilots had not yet left the institution, the THK made an offer to the Ministry during the forest fires in Muğla. However, headed by Minister Bekir Pakdemirli, the Ministry let this help offer be defeated in political games; he did not accept the offer. The result? Hectares of forests on fire, like today!

In the same year, the planes of the THK performed a stunt at the Teknofest, where Selçuk Bayraktar, the son-in-law of President Erdoğan, was the chair of the executive board. In line with the scenario, the planes successfully fulfilled the tasks of filling and pouring water.

But Minister Pakdemirli had already given the tender. He went to Russia and made an appearance with Russian planes.

And the result today? More nonfunctional, but more expensive planes that are fewer in number than the THK planes...

Besides, he did it in line with the mentality of "Throw dirt enough on the THK aircraft, and some will stick." He argued that the planes were old, just as Erdoğan did. Yes, they were old. They were manufactured in the 1970s. But the same planes were in use in several countries, from Greece to France, from Canada to Spain. Because they are still useful despite being old.

They do not pose a danger to anyone as long as their care and maintenance is done on time. They are small, which helps them to be more agile than their counterparts. So, they can enter the places where big planes cannot. They can carry more water than helicopters can do.

Yes, they cannot take water from ponds or pools, they need a wider space. But it is what differs planes from helicopters in the first place.

While I am writing all this, I am still sad and angry. Let's read what I have just written together with what Fahrettin Altun said yesterday.

Not accepting the offers of help of the European Union (EU) and Greece or not asking for help from other countries, the state could just say, "#HelpTurkey campaign has been launched to make our state look incapable and to undermine our state-nation unison."

The state is in place. But where are forests, the creatures living there, the deceased people, the living spaces of people, their houses, gardens, schools? The state is in place, the AKP is in place, but are the elements constituting the state still in place? We don't have forests, we don't have animals, we don't have people or nature. There is trauma and sorrow.

The responsible party? The AKP government, which has become a mafia, a state... The government, which has channeled our taxes to pro-government groups and to the Presidency of Religious Affairs... The Ministry, which did not foresee the current situation despite a million dollars budget... The government officials who could not purchase two firefighting planes despite being I don't know which biggest economy of the world while going everywhere in their private planes... The AKP-FETÖ cooperation, which has undermined the THK... Everyone who has turned a deaf ear to warnings!

CLICK - Turkish Aeronautical Association: Ministry Turned Down Our Offer for Help in Muğla Wildfire

(HA/SD)