Mining company in Cine forced Family Coskun to leave their home once again

Özer AKDEMİR
İzmir

The nightmare for the Coskun family, whose home is 65 metres away from a plosive mining operation in Topcam neighbourhood in Cine in the province of Aydin, drags on. Early in the morning today, an employee of the Eysim company came to their home and told them that there would be a detonation in the mine and asked the family to leave their home. Also, in recent weeks, the mining company had forced the family out of their homes because of the detonations, with gendarmes coming and sending the family away from their home before the detonations.

MINING COMPANY PLEDGE TO LEAVE AREA A WEEK AGO

Ali Coskun says that they have no safety of life or property due to the quartz mine operated by Eysim, a mining company operating 65 meters away from his home in Cine: “The mining nightmare has no end. Just last week, however, an official from the mine came and said they would close the quarry there, rehabilitate the area and leave. Just as we were rejoicing at this news, we realized that they were flat out drilling holes in the mine to prepare an explosion.  They've drilled 100 holes a day for, like, a week. I think they will effect a very big detonation.”

A LIFE AND DEATH SITUATION

Coskun says he wants to meet with the gendarmerie, the district governor's office and the provincial governor's office about the problems caused by the mine: “I can’t reach the governor. I called a third time and but no luck..." Coskun says that he learned that such detonations could not be carried out in close proximity to a residential area, as in his case, and that the public should be informed 15 days before the detonations: “They don’t tell us anything about it. When they detonate, we’re in a life and death situation in our home. Dust, dirt, noise... Our animals have a miscarriage out of fear, stones are falling on the roof of our home. My wife have had a panic attack so many times.”

"ALL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES KNOW THIS IS ILLEGAL BUT..."

Coskun states that the miners has not kept their word at all: “They said they would leave a week ago, now they say they will detonate, they ask us to leave our home. They especially choose to do it on weekends so that there is no backlash from government agencies like the district and provincial governor's office. I don't see how this happens. The district governor's office, the provincial governor's office and the gendarmerie know that they can’t detonate here, but they're ignoring it. Who should we go to as citizens and tell our problems? Who should we contact? When it is a mining company, everyone's blind and deaf? The government is only strong enough against us. Is there a state that does not comply with its own laws?"

WE HAVE NO LIFE SAFETY

Ali Coskun, who we spoke on the phone, said that he and his wife had left their homes for safety reasons, but that they had animals at their home and that many stone pines, which are a source of income for them, were negatively impacted by the detonations.