Urgent Expropriations in Milas Constitute an Insistence on Ecological and Social Destruction that Disregards the Climate Crisis
In the Milas district of Muğla and its surroundings, particularly along the Akbelen and İkizköy line, forests, agricultural lands, and olive groves have gradually been opened up to mining activities as part of efforts to expand mining sites to supply coal to thermal power plants. Throughout this process, the local community repeatedly pursued legal action to protect their olive groves, livelihoods, and living spaces. While lawsuits, court-appointed site inspections, and court proceedings were still ongoing, a Presidential Decree dated January 10, 2026, imposed a new urgent expropriation for hundreds of properties. However, for the people of the region, the issue is not merely one of property ownership; it is about protecting their living spaces and their future.
Urgent expropriation decisions cover not only agricultural land and olive groves, but also the homes where villagers have lived for years. This means that citizens are losing not only their land, but also their homes and living spaces. Expropriations lead not only to dispossession, but also to migration, the end of agricultural production, and the disappearance of village life. The conversion of olive groves and residential areas into mining sites will directly destroy the ecological balance of the region and the livelihoods of the local people.
The urgent expropriation decisions in question contain serious legal violations, primarily concerning property rights, but also including environmental rights, the right to life, and freedom of residence. The adoption of new expropriation decisions without regard to specific legislation on the protection of olive groves and previous court rulings, and without waiting for the outcome of ongoing lawsuits, is incompatible with the principles of legal certainty and the rule of law. Moreover, despite the claim that it is in the public interest, technical reports and scientific assessments indicate that there is no compelling necessity for electricity production.
For this reason, a total of 96 separate lawsuits covering 200 parcels were filed on behalf of citizens whose properties in the region were subject to urgent expropriation. These lawsuits, filed by members of the EGEÇEP Legal Committee, are part of a social legal struggle to protect individual property rights, agricultural lands, olive groves, village settlements, and living spaces. Each lawsuit is the legal counterpart of the villagers’ determination to protect their living spaces.
At this point, we call on the judicial authorities to evaluate the process in accordance with the principle of the rule of law and taking into account the exceptional nature of urgent expropriation. Urgent expropriation may only be applied in truly necessary and exceptional circumstances. It is not legally acceptable for a mining plan that has been ongoing for years to present expropriation as an urgent necessity. We expect the judiciary to issue decisions that protect citizens’ property rights, environmental rights, and right to access justice.
On the other hand, the burning of coal, a fossil fuel, extracted from mines to be opened in areas subject to urgent expropriation at the Yatağan and Kemerköy Thermal Power Plants will increase carbon emissions in the region. In accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement, the Republic of Turkey must phase out coal by 2030 in order to fulfill its pledge of net-zero emissions by 2053. With these policies, it is not possible for Turkey to achieve its net-zero emissions target.
Additionally, Turkey will host the COP31 (Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change-UNFCCC) this year. The Republic of Turkey is the co-president of COP31, which will convene in Antalya in November. The urgent expropriations carried out for the purpose of opening coal mines to be burned in thermal power plants are incompatible with hosting COP31 and serving as its co-chair.
What we are facing today in Milas is not an urgent public need, but the result of a mining expansion policy that has been pursued for years. This is an insistence on ecological and social destruction that disregards the climate crisis. We call on the Government to abandon these misguided policies, which will cause irreparable damage, in order to protect the right to a healthy life for present and future generations and to ensure the survival of life on Earth.
Aegean Environment and Culture Platform (EGEÇEP)
Contact: egecepsozcu@gmail.com
Website: www.egecep.org.tr
