Author: Murathan Yildirim

Türkiye’s third-largest province and a stronghold of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Izmir suffers from pollution due to mismanagement. The province’s municipalities controlled by the party face a myriad of fines for allowing pollution to run wild. Inspections by the Ministry of Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change expose violations of environmental regulations by municipalities in the province. Izmir Metropolitan Municipality notoriously led the list of municipalities handed down hefty fines. The ministry also initiated legal proceedings against local administrations accused of harming the environment and the Gulf of Izmir. The ministry conducted 188 separate inspections last year…

In one month, authorities issued a total of TL 9 million ($252,585) in fines to four municipalities run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for polluting the Marmara Sea in the northwest. The municipalities are mandated to establish advanced biological wastewater treatment plants under the government’s Marmara Sea Action Plan, but so far, none established them and their existing plants have failed to address the issue. The Marmara Sea, which is littoral to Istanbul, Türkiye’s most populated city, is again under the threat of mucilage or sea snot, blamed on the increase in organic pollutants and rise in…