Forest fires in Turkey, especially in Antalya, Aydın and Muğla, have been going on for two weeks. Eight people lost their lives as a result of the fires, while tens of thousands of hectares of forest area turned into ashes and the ecosystem was heavily affected. While hundreds of houses were damaged as a result of the fires that spread to residential areas, the future of these areas burned down became the subject of discussion due to the inadequacies in the response to these fires.

While the AKP-MHP alliance was setting the stage for new racist attacks by pointing to the Kurds as the cause of the fires, the law published in the Official Gazette on the day of the first fire in Manavgat facilitated the possibility to develop in forest areas and gave broad powers to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for these areas.

Prisoners beaten and tortured

Prisons are one of the places where racist attacks instigated by the AKP-MHP's anti-Kurdish rhetoric are experienced the most. Prisoners in Elazığ Prison No. 1 are subjected to torture by the guards on the grounds of "forest fires".

A prisoner named Baran Barış Korkmaz said that they were tortured by the guards on the grounds of "forest fires" by showing the bruises on his body during the closed visit he had with his family last Monday.

Baran Barış Korkmaz said: “We are being tortured by the guards on the grounds of forest fires. A friend of ours, who was sick, was tortured by the guards while he was being taken to the infirmary from his cell. He was beaten and told ‘your people burned the forests’. Our friend's whole body is covered in bruises due to the torture he was subjected to. On the same day, the guards took another prisoner from his cell and tortured him for the same reason. The guards also came to my cell on the same day and asked me to come with them without giving reasons. When I refused to go, they entered the cell and tortured me. They stuck my hand in the grating. Our lives are in danger. Our lives are in danger. Our friends are in poor health.”