Environmental activists from Kurdistan and Turkey have made serious accusations against the Turkish government and the state electricity company during a visit to the fire area between the provinces of Mardin (Mêrdîn) and Diyarbakir (Amed). 15 people were killed in the wildfire that broke out on Thursday evening in the districts of Mazıdağı (Şemrex) and Çınar (Xana Axpar) due to a short circuit on an electricity pole. The environmental activists first visited the village of Kelekê, which has recorded the most fatalities, and then Tobinî, where the fire broke out and two villagers died.

"The perpetrators are known, those responsible must pay"

Gökhan Saran, co-spokesperson for the Mesopotamia Ecology Movement, said in Tobinî that the fire had escalated into a catastrophe due to a whole series of mistakes, and has caused 15 dead and 78 injured, and hundreds of thousands of living beings burned in an area of ​​over 5,000 hectares. The profit-obsessed electricity company DEDAŞ and the government, which had not intervened in any way to stop the fire, were responsible for this. Saran said the fire disaster was part of the 'scorched earth policy’ that has been used to depopulate Kurdistan and destroy the ecosystem since the 1990s. Saran said: "It is now crucial that we wage a global ecological struggle that knows no borders in the face of a government that is destroying the balance of nature and society in every way, from plundering nature to dominating society."

Melis Tantan, co-spokesperson of the DEM Committee on Ecology and Agriculture, called for the region to be declared a disaster area and said the government had ignored the request of the DEM-ruled municipalities for firefighting helicopters. Helicopters were not deployed in the area, which is difficult for vehicles to access, until Friday morning, when the fire was already under control.

"The governor deleted footage"

Villager Hanifi Buğdaycı said the power lines had not been maintained for years, adding: "We submitted petitions, but no one took care of the lines. The fire has taken 15 people, our animals have died, our livelihoods have turned to ashes and our pain is great. The authorities have claimed, without any investigation, that the cause of the fire was a stubble field. However, the cause was the power lines. We have eyewitnesses to this. They filmed the lines catching fire. The governor of Diyarbakır came to the village for a condolence visit and deleted the recordings from their phones."

The environmentalists announced that they would summarize and publish their observations in a report in the coming days.