Turkish gendarmes detained some 20 people, including five 14-year-old teenagers and a 90-year-old woman, on Wednesday after local residents blocked heavy machinery from entering a mining exploration site in northern Turkey’s Black Sea highlands, the Cumhuriyet daily reported.
Residents had gathered at the Turnalık highland pasture in northeastern Ordu province after learning that Taşyapı, the company conducting the exploration work, had returned heavy machinery to the area. The company had stopped drilling and removed its equipment the previous week following opposition from local residents.
Gendarmes erected a security barrier and ordered the protesters to leave the company’s work area, warning that gathering there and obstructing the drilling operation constituted offenses. The protesters responded by applauding and linking arms before gendarmes intervened and detained approximately 20 people.
The detainees included Şükriye Çınar, a 90-year-old environmental campaigner known locally as “Şükriye Anne” (Mother Şükriye), as well as members of the Korgan Aybastı Kabataş Environmental Association.
The youngsters and other protesters were taken to a gendarmerie station to give statements and were released later Wednesday. It was not immediately clear whether the children’s parents or lawyers were present during questioning or whether anyone was formally accused of an offense.
Turkey is party to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says the detention of a child should be used only as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period. The available reports did not provide enough information to determine whether the children’s treatment met those standards.
The confrontation was the latest development in a dispute over mining exploration in Turnalık, a highland area in north Ordu’s Korgan district. Residents and environmental organizations say the work threatens pastureland, water sources and the area’s natural environment.
The Ordu Environmental Association (ORÇEV) said it had documented the company’s alleged failure to produce required permits and other official records during an inspection of the site. The association filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors alleging that the drilling was being conducted without the necessary authorization.
