DİHA - Dicle News Agency

ANTALYA (DİHA) - Antalya province Environment and Urban Planning Provincial Headquarters meets tomorrow to discuss the registration of Alakır Valley as a 1st degree natural protection site.

The Alakır River Brotherhood [Alakır Nehri Kardeşliği] called those in support of Alakır to gather in front of the Antalya Environment and Urban Planning Provincial Headquarters building tomorrow at 11 am, as the Supreme Court of Appeals’ verdict will be discussed there tomorrow. The Directorate to Preserve Natural Properties, the related executive organ tied to the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning has to register and announce the decision to preserve Alakır Valley as a 1st degree natural protection area for it to be executed. The Supreme Court of Appeals had approved the decision that the Alakır Valley is a first-degree protected area.

Hydroelectric plants not permitted

There are eight hydroelectric power plant projects in Kumluca district, home to Antalya province’s Alakır Valley, four of which have been completed and four in the planning stage. With the Supreme Court of Appeals’ verdict, the hydroelectric plants planned to be built in Alakır will not be realized, and the outcome of the completed four is yet undetermined.

The process of the struggle

The Alakır River Brotherhood had applied for the declaration of Alakır Valley as a 1st degree natural protection area, but Antalya Culture and Nature Properties Protection Board had rejected the application. Prosecutors filed a case in 2010 in Antalya 3rd Administrative Court upon the rejection. This case concluded in March 2012 with the judgment that the entire basin from where Alakır is born to its mouth is a first-degree natural protection area.

Nevertheless, Antalya Culture and Nature Properties Protection Board and hydroelectric plant companies objected to the verdict. The result of this objection crystallized in June 2014. The Supreme Court of Appeals rejected the objection and approved the court decision. *Source: bianet

(nt)