The co-spokespersons of the DEM Party Ecology, Agriculture and Animal Rights Commission, Melis Tantan and İbrahim Akın, stated in a written declaration: “We are living in an era where the cycle of nature is disrupted by capitalist interventions. We witness that the crisis created by capitalism is deepening the ecological crisis, that new opportunities are being created from these crises for the benefit of capital and states, while peoples, nature, and all living and non-living entities struggle for their very existence in these crises.”

The statement continued: “In a period where capital attempts to legitimize the right to pollute under the name of ‘emissions trading’ through legal regulations, where security policies result in ecological destruction alongside cultural and social destruction, and where those who pollute and destroy nature try to present themselves as ‘environmentalists,’ we will continue to pursue and defend the truth for nature.

This truth lies in defending all our living spaces and the rights of the wild, in establishing a way of life that protects all living and non-living beings while saying ‘for the wolf, the bird, and the table,’ and in sustaining the cycle of nature. It is possible to implement policies where the growth-focused rhetoric benefiting only domestic, foreign, and international capital groups through massive mining and energy investments is abandoned; where nature is not seen as a commodity or investment tool; where fossil fuel usage is ended without victimizing workers; and where plant-based and agricultural production is increased with methods that also protect farmers and their environments. It is possible to move away from rent-driven urbanization policies based on dispossession, impoverishment, and environmental destruction, toward self-sufficient, solidarity-based economies with no overconsumption and an urbanization that is nature-friendly, respects the rights of all species, and meets all human needs without discrimination.

On this year’s World Environment Day, themed ‘plastic pollution,’ we emphasize again that, like all other consequences of environmental destruction, the primary culprit of plastic pollution is capitalism, which treats nature as a commodity. We reiterate our call to halt plastic production to reduce the plastics released into nature and to oppose every capital-driven move that exploits crises, including the expansion of microplastic contamination under the guise of recycling.

On the occasion of World Environment Day, we remind that the Peace and Democratic Society process is inseparable from the struggle to protect nature. In this process, we will strengthen our struggle together with all peoples for a society in harmony with nature, where the soil is fertile, water flows freely, air is clean, and wildlife and ecological diversity can exist without interference.”