Defending Nature: Transformation of the Space Through Grassroots Activism Against the Threat of Extractivism

Despite the violence of law enforcement forces in Turkey, both urban and rural communities are protesting environmental injustices, including the ecological destruction, human rights violations, health problems, and displacement that the extractive industry causes. Despite the recent increase in discussions on the topic, the extractive industry and environmental protests are not recent debates in Turkish politics. Since the military coup of 1980, changes in mining codes have led communities to organize environmental protests to defend their livelihoods, place, and culture. For four decades, many communities have organized successful protests that have helped develop the environmental movement in Turkey. However, while some environmental movements have been ongoing for many years through grassroots activism, others have failed to create a collective identity that enables the entire community to come together. Hence, in this paper, I comparatively analyse the anti-mining environmental struggles of two communities. In doing so, I show how local inhabitants have been able to organize an environmental movement against extractivism to defend their livelihoods and space under an umbrella organization. I argue that as these local inhabitants organized an environmental movement as a place-based struggle to defend the place “where they lived in and acted” (Escobar 2008), a sustainable movement is more likely to arise from the grassroots activism of the community.