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ANKARA - While the delegation from İkizdere continued their contacts in Ankara, the women in the delegation said: “Trees, stones and rocks have souls, so no one should interfere with our memories. İkizdere is a women’s struggle. Erdoğan should lay claim to us instead of Cengiz Holding!”

People who are against the construction of the stone quarry in İkizdere district with the partnership of Cengiz Construction Industry and Trade Company and Building, Construction Contracting Industry and Trade Stock Company, which received the tender for the Rize İyidere Logistics Port project belonging to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, have been struggling to protect the ecological life for 43 days.

The chairperson and representatives of the İkizdere Associations Federation came to Ankara with a delegation consisting of villagers who stood watch against the quarry and held meetings with many political parties and demanded that the construction of the quarry be stopped. The women in the delegation stated that the İkizdere struggle was first started by women, and that the victory of the resistance will be the victory of the women.

‘They destroyed our nature’

Ayşe Albayrak, 66-year-old, who was born and lives in İkizdere, said: “We don't want them to take our villages. Let them not interfere to us, we do not want anything else from them. Let them not dry up our stream, not destroy our trees, stones, and nature. Trees, stones, and rocks have souls, let no one interfere with our memories. Just out of spite, they cut down our trees, and filled the streams so that no one could see. They dried the water of both our big and small streams and left us without water. Even our water does not flow in a place like the Black Sea. They cut down our trees, plundered our forests, destroyed our lands. Our places are rocky, there is no soil, if they make an explosion there, it will come out of the mountain. These are people who have read that much, how can they not understand this business? Our underground resources have disappeared. Because once bombs exploded to open the tunnels, and everything turned upside down. Then again, our groundwater was cut off and disappeared. They have dried up our rivers and when they take this village from us, we will have no chance of survival. We are not going to go anywhere we will not give our land left to us from our ancestors to anyone.”

‘Even if they are executed, I will still resist’

Emphasizing that the İkizdere struggle started with a few women and women were the pioneers, Ayşe said: “They are so afraid of three or four women that they have gathered dozens of gendarmes there.” Ayşe said that women who opposed the gendarmerie were prevented and stated: “We women stood up. If we had been more, the dozer would not have come off that slope. This is women's struggle. The İkizdere struggle is a women's struggle and as a result it will be the victory of women. Here I am calling out to all women living in Turkey; everyone should fight, and every woman should demand her rights. May women be victorious in İkizdere. This state should lay claim to us! Erdogan should claim to us instead of Cengiz Holding! Isn't this our state? We have always stood behind the state, we have never opposed it, we have not even intervened for a day, but from now on we will intervene to the end. We will definitely not give up our stone, our land, let them execute me if they want, but I will fight and resist until the end as long as I live.”

‘We came to Ankara to make our voices heard’

Reminding that they are against the construction of the stone quarry, Pervin Baş, one of the İkizdere resistance fighters, said: “I feed my cows and cattle from that nature. Now they have restricted us from everything. Every day, 50 gendarmes surround a woman in İkizdere. They took away my freedom. I do not know what to do. No one is behind us. We ourselves look after our village and our village is divided into two; There are those who come, there are those who do not see. We certainly do not want the stone quarry to be built. Whatever happens, the quarry will not be there. That is why we came to Ankara to make our voices heard. Turkey should support us. We do not want to hear the sound of dynamite. We do not want our water, valley, and nature to be damaged. We never accept this quarry. We will not bow down to anyone. We will fight until we have the last tree left.”

‘Black Sea people are stubborn, where hope ends, stubborness begins’

Zeynep Baş also states that she went to her hometown from Istanbul for the resistance and has been fighting for 43 days and explains why women who resist for nature are at the forefront as follows: “Because is a woman who sows the crops in nature and gives and takes her labor to nature. In other words, it is instinctive for a woman to be so involved with nature. We only strive to protect our habitats and not to let life forms slip by our hands. We do not care what anyone thinks. They narrow our space, they do their best to limit us. However, they forget this: Black Sea people are stubborn, stubborness begins where hope ends. Therefore, we find ourselves justified in this regard. We are right in our cause. We continue peacefully and we will continue to fight even more.”

‘We want to hear the sound of the stream, not the noise’

Stating that people come out of the metropolises and meet the Black Sea nature, Zeynep said: “There are those who try to take our living space from us, and we will not allow this. Therefore, they have no right to take my nature, my stream, my life from me. At this point, we are against this quarry. We want to hear sound of the stream, not the noise. We want to feel the wind, not the constructions. We want to live with clean air, not dust. Therefore, we will resist so that the quarry is not built.”