Controversial mining work halted in Artvin after meeting with PM

Work to construct a mine in Artvin's Cerattepe district has reportedly been halted until the judicial process is completed, following a Feb. 24 meeting between a delegation from the district and Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu.

"Mining works in Cerattepe have been halted. The completion of the judicial process will be awaited," prime ministry sources have said.

The Artvin Municipality also broke the news on its Facebook account, saying the work of the mining company was halted after Davuto?lu's meeting with the members of the Green Artvin Association in Ankara.

The prime minister met with the delegation on Feb. 24, in a bid to resolve the unrest over plans to build a new mine in Artvin's Cerattepe district.

The two-hour meeting came after mass protests against a controversial gold mine plan in Artvin's environmentally pristine Cerattepe district.

Facing determined resistance from hundreds of protesters, police and gendarmerie forces fired tear gas on Feb. 17 to disperse demonstrators who erected barricades, set rubbish bins alight and made bonfires with tree branches in order to block the construction work in Cerattepe, an area in the alpine meadow of Kafkasör.

On Feb. 21, the Artvin Governor's Office controversially banned all entry to the province as protesters arrived to support hundreds of locals resisting against the plan to construct a gold mine that could severely damage nature in the region.

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