Mayors in the areas of fire talk to Evrensel: None of our pleas are heard by the Government

Şerif KARATAŞ
İstanbul

The fires in the Mediterranean and Aegean cities of Turkey, which have been going on for days, cannot be intervened. Every new day, every new hour, a fire breaks out in a different region. While the fire extinguishing materials in the government's inventory are insufficient, the mayors of the burning regions have been required to intervene from the air for days. He calls for helicopters and planes. However, the mayor's calls go unanswered.

The mayors of the regions where intervention from land is very difficult due to the rugged forest area, Marmaris Mayor Mehmet Oktay and Milas Mayor Muhammet Tokat, spoke to Evrensel. The mayors complained, saying, “None of our words are heard, none of our pleas are heard.”

12 THOUSAND HECTARES OF LAND BURNED

Marmaris Mayor Mehmet Oktay gave the following information about the fire in the district: “The burned areas are geographically dense forest areas. In most of it, terrestrial transportation is quite difficult. Therefore, it was the reason why it spread over such a wide area. The fires haven been tried to be extinguished with only aerial interventions. Unfortunately, it was not enough that it spread over such a large area. An area of ​​over 12 thousand hectares has already been burned.”
Stating that they have attended the meeting organized by the Minister of Culture and Tourism once and the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry once, Oktay said, “We express it on every platform: Airplane and helicopter. We take care to work in coordination and harmony with our other institutions for the fire. Here, our primary need was interventions from the air, either by plane or by helicopter. Unfortunately, we were not sufficient in this regard. That's the main problem here," he said.

‘'WE NEED TO UNITE, NOT SEPARATE'

Stating that it is not right for the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli to assign the responsibility of forest fires to the municipality, Oktay said: “When we look at the burned areas, it is forested areas. In such a crisis and fire period, it is not right for institutions to stand up and make accusations against each other, especially by high-level people. I do not find this statement of the minister correct where we need to unite, not to separate. As Marmaris Municipality, we take care to work in harmony with our forest directorate and national parks directorate, which is always supportive and in harmony with our possibilities. Unfortunately, the statement of the Minister is not correct. That's right: it's the municipality's fire department that is responsible for responding to residential fires. However, the fire comes to the settlements from the forest. It is not a fire that came out of the house or residence and spread to the forest, but the fire in the forest spread to the houses.” In his call to the authorities, Oktay said, "As much air support as possible."

‘WE NEED AIR SUPPORT’

Milas Mayor Muhammet Tokat said, “As municipalities, we have no problem in our coordination with official institutions and ministries. But none of our words are heard, none of our pleas are heard. In the morning (Yesterday morning), the Deputy General Director of Forestry came here, I said that this fire will go out today, the arrangements were made in the evening, we killed this fire in a very narrow area with our foresters, official institutions, companies, fire brigade. It started to light up around 6 in the morning. And the fire was about to die. The Deputy General Director of Forestry came, I said, 'Let's hit that slap and kill them, let's give people happy news'. ‘There is no need for aerial intervention. "The helicopter is useless," he said. We said, 'There are residential areas, there is a thermal power plant', he said, 'There is nothing'. This place is hell right now. The dying fire in the morning is burning again. They've sent the helicopters now, but it's too late. Helicopters are useless to us from now on. They would be very helpful to us in the morning hours. Now there is the wind. It spreads around with the effect of the wind. We need more air support, planes.”

‘THE MINSTER OF FORESTS SHOULD PROTECT THE FORESTS FIRST’

Reminding the Minister Pakdemirli's statement that the municipalities are responsible for forest fires, Tokat said, "This fire is a forest fire and these burning places, the evacuated places are villages in the forest. The fire from the forest comes with such ferocity that they say it is more effective than the atomic bomb, experts say. Also, where it comes from, it destroys the settlements. It is difficult, impossible for us to preserve our settlements. Unless the Minister of Forestry protects the forest, we cannot protect our settlements. We expect the forest minister to protect the forest first," he said.

'INTERVENTION FROM LAND IS NOT POSSIBLE'

Explaining that the district has very rough terrain, Tokat said, "It is not possible to intervene on land. Helicopters and planes are required. This fire is coming from 30 kilometers away. It comes here from Beyciler village. The fire goes where it wants. We are just watching,” he said.