THE MEGA ANIMAL CONCENTRATION CAMP BUILT BY THE ISTANBUL METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY WAS PROTESTED: “FREEDOM TO ANIMALS, FOREST AND TO THE PLANET!”
The “Kısırkaya Temporary Unclaimed Animal Nursery
Center and Living Space with Garden” that the Istanbul Metropolitan
Municipality has been building in Kısırkaya, Sarıyer was protested by hundreds
of defenders of the right to life consisting of animal rights defenders,
environmental activists and different activist groups. Groups in the provinces
of İzmir and Ankara protested simultanously to support the Istanbul residents.
Activists that began to gather in the Kısırkaya
village, which became a favorite spot for rent seekers due to its proximity to
the 3rd bridge and the connection roads, with the call of the Independent
Animal Freedom Activists, Istanbul Urban Defense, Northern Forests Defense,
Sarıyer Urban Solidarity and Freedom to Earth Association marched to the
Kısırkaya animal shelter carrying a banner saying, “Close Down the Kısırkaya
Concentration Camp, Don’t Touch the Right to Life”. As the protestors marched
to the shelter that will eventually turn into a center of segregation and
genocide, they shouted slogans such as, “Freedom to trees, animals, earth!”,
“Tear cages apart inside and outside!”, and “Istanbul Municipality, Don’t Be
Silly, Don’t Try Our Patience!”. The Republican People’s Party deputies Melda
Onur and Haluk Eyidoğan, along with the fashion designer Barbaros Şansal
supported the protest in which hundreds of defenders of the right to life
participated despite the bad weather conditions and the difficulty to reach the
shelter. Close to a hundred NGOs and activist groups working on issues such as ecology, animal
rights, LGBT and human rights supported the protest as signatories.
Activists came to the Kısırkaya
village using the buses that left from different points in Istanbul and marched
to the shelter walking along the public beach whose facilities were demolished
accompanied by the military police last summer. On behalf of the activists,
Güneş Çağlıer from the Independent Animal Freedom Activists, read the press
release. In the introduction of the press release, Çağlıer said, “Today, we are at a location that symbolizes the organized crime
committed against the rights of nature, right to the city and right to
life; in front of a facility that they
call, “Kısırkaya Temporary Unclaimed Animal Nursery and Living Space with
Garden”, but one that will eventually turn into a merciless concentration and
segregation center for animals.”
Çağlıer, who emphasized that the
facility in question is a concentration camp designated as the new address for the
animals segregated from their living spaces in the city along with people as a
result of the urban renewal projects, said, “The Kısırkaya
animal segregation center is the next step of the urbanization of northern
Istanbul. The 3rd bridge project was the first step of this goal,
and the plans continue today with the 3rd airport project as part of
the mega projects network. It’s part of the process of surrendering the city to
capital with unnecessary and imposed mega projects”. Çağlıer also reminded that
the region shows as a second degree protected area and grassland in the
development plans, and the shelter built on it hasn’t been included in these
plans.
Çağlıer, who continued by
declaring, “This facility is illegal. What the decision of the courts
might be, and however those in power might bend the laws to fit their
capitalist goals, in the eyes of the residents of Istanbul, facilities like
this will always be a symbol of segregation, rent, and annihilation,” ended her
words saying “. We do not approve of this huge facility that will throw
Istanbul out of balance through development by rent-seekers. We are calling on
everybody to take action against these projects that are against all life, and
we are crying out again that we will be the watchdogs for all sort of mega
projects planned in the most carefree way for this city and all sorts of
attempts that will affect the living beings in the city.”
Following Güneş Çağlıer, Nurcan Kocaer, the head of
the Residents of Kısırkaya Association, greeted the defenders of the right to
life. Kocaer, who referred to the Metropolitan Law that accelerates the
plundering of rural lands and villages, emphasized that turning the “village”
status of Kısırkaya into neighborhood will have destructive consequences for
their village. Accompanied with the slogan, “The villagers in Kısırkaya are not
alone!”, “Kocaer ended his words saying,
“Our natural environment is getting destroyed and parcelled. We want to protect our village and
we are waiting for your support.”
The legal process of the lawsuit filed to stop the
execution of and cancel the animal shelter facility, whose wires and gate were
dismantled by the protesters, still continues. Activists who continued their
protest after a short while left the facility stating that their protest had a
warning quality and that they will not leave their animal friends alone.
TO THE MEDIA AND THE PUBLIC (PLEASE SHARE WITH THE WORLD):
We are going through times where defending life has become
extremely difficult, where we see shameless practices that one can rarely
witness.
Today, we are at a location that symbolizes the organized crime
committed against the rights of nature, right to the city and right to
life; in front of a facility that they
call, “Kısırkaya Temporary Unclaimed Animal Nursery and Living Space with
Garden”, but one that will turn into a merciless concentration and segregation
center for animals.
We are exposing the truths about this project whose modernity,
capacity and comfort the Istanbul Municipality brags about:
·
It is a concrete cemetery whose physical size
is directly proportional to the magnitude of its violation of the right to
life. Presenting the living
conditions of animals collected from the streets and locked up inside four
walls as luxury is nothing but concealing the fact that these animals have been
detached from the city and convicted to a process that will result in death.
Their experiences, habits and socialization throughout the hundreds of years
they have lived together with humans have been completely disregarded.
·
It’s the product of a mentality that sees
modernity as a skewed emulation of the streets cleared of animals in Europe. The conditions of the animal shelters are not
measured by whether the technology used in its infrastructure is up-to-date but
by the policies and practices of their managers. The efforts to acquit the
municipality’s puppy slaughter in Hasdal
and the inadequate and unmonitored animal shelter management in all of Istanbul
with the claims that this is a modern shelter is an insult to the system of
logic in the universe that we know.
·
It is a concentration camp designated as the
new address for the animals segregated from their living spaces in the city
along with people as a result of the urban renewal projects. It’s the malicious authority of the love of
rent, capital and concrete over the right of animals to exist. This project in
Kısırkaya is part of a process that will develop northern Istanbul and it is
the destruction of the grasslands and northern forests of Istanbul that provide
food and shelter.
·
It’s a monument of irregularity- an urban and
environmental crime scene. This region is a wetland area with high winds where landslides
occur, and it is not suitable for animals to shelter. It shows as a second
degree protected area and grassland in the development plans, and this shelter
built on it hasn’t been included in these plans.
·
It’s a ball of contradictions. The
statements of the Istanbul’s municipal director Kadir Topbaş on TV, the defense
of the municipality presented to the court for the lawsuit filed to stop the
execution of the project and the clarifications of the municipality after our
recent public statement all contradict each other with regards to the exact
number of animals the facility can shelter. An institution and its director
have managed to make three contradictory statements. Normally however, as
stated in the 5th article of The Regulations for the Ethical Conduct
of Public Officials and Rules and Principles of Application, the public
officials are supposed to base their public services on honesty and reliable
declarations. Upon the disclosure of this contradiction, the municipality made
its social media department work endless hours and began to display information
on the TV screens at the subway stations about the facility as if in a state of
panic. The municipality virtually declared mobilization to legitimize this
facility.
·
It’s a tyranny over non-human life. With this project, the municipality of
Istanbul institutionalizes arbitrary interventions to animals’ right to life,
exiles the animals from their homes in urban and rural areas, and foresees a
slow death for them through segregation while destroying the habitats of the
wildlife.
·
What’s deemed appropriate for Istanbul is
further ecological destruction brought by the love of development. The Kısırkaya animal segregation center is the
next step of the urbanization of northern Istanbul. The 3rd bridge
project was the first step of this goal, and the plans continue today with the
3rd airport project as part of the mega projects network. It’s part
of the process of surrendering the city to capital with unnecessary and imposed
mega projects, and surrendering the public to drought and air pollution with
the development of natural habitats that nourish life in Istanbul.
This
facility is illegal. What the decision of the courts might be, and however
those in power might bend the laws to fit their capitalist goals, in the eyes
of the residents of Istanbul, facilities like this will always be a symbol of
segregation, rent, and annihilation. We do not approve of this huge facility
that will lead to a genocide of urban animals, force the wildlife to migrate,
create an uninhabitable environment for the local communities, and throw
Istanbul out of balance through development.
Istanbul
neither needs the Kısırkaya concentration camp, nor the 3rd bridge
and the 3rd airport. We are calling on everybody to take action
against these projects that are against all life, and we are crying out again
that we will be the watchdogs for all sort of mega projects planned in a carefree
way and all sorts of attempts that will affect the living beings in the city.
INDEPENDENT ACTIVISTS FOR ANIMAL FREEDOM facebook.com/HayvanOzgurlugu
İSTANBUL URBAN DEFENSE
facebook.com/IstanbulKentSavunmasi
NORTHERN FORESTS DEFENSE kuzeyormanlari.org
SARIYER URBAN SOLIDARITY facebook.com/SariyerDayanismasi
FREEDOM TO EARTH ASSOCIATION yeryuzuneozgurluk.blogspot.com
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