Akbelen Villagers Tell COP31 Leaders: Come See What Coal Has Done
Villagers resisting the expansion of a lignite mine across Akbelen Forest in southwestern Türkiye have issued a direct challenge to the officials gathering for COP31: leave the conference halls and see what coal extraction has done to their land, farms and homes.
The appeal was reported on November 8 by Reuters and independently by Agence France-Presse. It comes one day before the UN climate conference opens in Antalya. COP31 runs from November 9 to 20, while the official leaders’ summit is scheduled for November 11 and 12.
Nejla Işık, the elected leader of İkizköy village, has become one of the best-known figures in the campaign against the mine. Her daughter, Esra Işık, was held in pretrial detention for 42 days after a March 31 protest and later received a two-year sentence, AFP reported; she remains free while appealing. Their homes stand only a few hundred metres from the advancing open pit.
The dispute is not an abstract argument over climate targets. The Yeniköy-Kemerköy mining and power complex has already transformed the landscape around Milas in Muğla province. A Turkish government expropriation order covered 679 parcels in the area, according to a communication published by UN human-rights experts. Residents say olive groves, water sources, grazing land and village life are being placed beneath the needs of the mine.
The operators, a joint venture involving Limak Holding and IC İçtaş, say the project is needed for energy security and employment. They also say land rehabilitation, replanting and alternative plots are part of their plans. Some local residents support the mine because it provides jobs. Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has argued that the long licence and Türkiye's continuing dependence on coal make an immediate transition difficult, while pointing to nuclear power as part of the government's future mix.
Those arguments describe a real economic problem, but they do not settle who should pay for it. Reuters reported that coal supplied about 34 percent of Türkiye's electricity last year, while the two plants connected to the Akbelen operation produced only a little over 2 percent of national electricity. A just transition cannot mean preserving corporate revenue while villagers lose land and workers are told that their only choices are dangerous mining jobs or unemployment. It requires guaranteed replacement jobs, income protection, land restoration and democratic control over the timetable.
The Akbelen campaign has also exposed the gap between Türkiye's international climate role and the treatment of people who contest extractive projects at home. In October, Human Rights Watch documented police violence, detention and prosecutions involving environmental defenders, including Akbelen protesters. The organisation said the authorities should end abusive prosecutions and protect peaceful protest as Türkiye prepares to host the summit.
That record matters because COP31 is being presented as a forum for implementation, finance and a fair transition. A transition negotiated without the people living beside mines, power stations and threatened forests will reproduce the same unequal structure under a greener vocabulary. The villagers' demand is therefore more than a request for sympathy. It is a test of whether climate diplomacy will confront the political power behind extraction.
Pamphlets has already reported on the wider stakes facing the summit, including the UN secretary-general's warning that the 1.5-degree threshold will be breached and the growing climate danger for 90 million displaced people. Akbelen gives those global warnings a precise address. If leaders want to understand the cost of delaying a fossil-fuel transition, the villagers say they should come and look.
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