Cengiz Holding

A group of 30 media representatives visited the Cerattepe region of the Kafkasör highland in the Black Sea province of Artvin, examining and reporting the damage caused by a planned mine construction in the area, Doğan News Agency reported on Aug. 13.

The governor's office in Artvin has banned entry to the province as protesters arrive to support hundreds of locals who have been resisting against a plan to construct a gold mine that could severely damage the Black Sea province.

Police and soldiers have dispersed a group that arrived in the Black Sea province of Artvin to lend support to locals and environmentalists groups that have been protesting a new gold mine.

The police used tear gas against the group of about 1,000, which tried to go into the city, passing over the barricades on Feb. 20.

Some protesters were reportedly detained.

Caterpillars have started to prepare an environmentally important area in northern Turkey for construction of a mine site that saw two-day protests against turning a lush landscape into a gold mine, the state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Police and gendarmerie reinforcements were deployed to Cerattepe in the Black Sea province of Artvin on Feb. 17 as security forces deployed tear gas and batons against locals who have been protesting efforts by a mining company to open a gold mine in the area.

Experts of marine life have called authorities to protect 15 kilometers along the southeastern Marmara Sea coast around Karabiga, where five new coal plants are in or pending construction, to protect endangered specimens of Mediterranean seals.

A coal plant project planned in Turkey's southwestern Marmara coast is threatening the habitat of Mediterranean seals and loggerhead turtles, experts from a number of institutions have warned.