Nature and history butchered for coal

On one side there is Bodrum; on the other side there is Marmaris. At the center of this paradise lies the Yatağan Thermal Power Station with its giant polluting capacity.

This power station started energy production with three of its units in 1985. Then local groups and lawyers appealed to relevant ministries, TEAŞ and the Muğla Governor's Office for the closure of the power station because of its negative effects on human health and the environment. They did not even reply.

Several cases were opened; in 1996, experts decided to stop production at the station, but when the courts rejected the closure, it was taken to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In 2005, the ECHR fined Turkey for harming the rights of the applicants. The Environment Minister of the time, Osman Pepe, even said they would have to close down the power station at Yatağan if border values for human health were exceeded. 

Yatağan was not closed at that time; it was privatized in 2014 together with the mine providing coal for it. The life of a thermal power station is a maximum of 35 years, but Yatağan's life was extended when privatized. Trucks are constantly carrying coal to the plant. At present, Yatağan, which is the oldest and most unproductive power station in Turkey, one that has to retire, is almost "drinking" the low quality lignite coal excavated from the area.

It has to enlarge the lignite zone that provides coal to it. The plant is at an ever-burning unproductive state.

When the coal zone was enlarged in 2012, the Yeşilbağcılar village, which had a 4,500-year-old history and 10 olive trees that were 800 years old, had to be relocated when coal was found underneath. Both the village and the 109-year-old mosque were promised to be moved...