JINHA

SİNOP – The day before the 29th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, tens of thousands held an anti-nuclear rally in Turkey's northern province of Sinop in the Black Sea region yesterday.

The Chernobyl disaster affected the entire Black Sea region, including Turkey, which has fed the strong environmental and anti-nuclear movement there. Now, the nuclear power plant planned for Turkey's southern Mersin province has brought Sinop environmentalists, familiar with the devastating health effects of nuclear power, out to say "no to nuclear."

"This calamity is promising us death under the banner of improving and producing energy," said Confederation of Public Workers' Unions (KESK) General Co-Chair Şaziye Köse during the rally. She emphasized that the capitalism was threatening humanity. "But we aren't scared."

The march drew attendees from all segments of society in Sinop and the area, from environmental organizations like local preservation groups; political parties like the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP); and football team supporters for a colorful march where marchers danced traditional Black Sea line dances. Environmentalists marched from the historical Sinop Prison to Uğur Mumcu Square for a rally that started by honoring those who lost their lives in the environmental struggle, including three students who drowned in the region while camping out as part of an environmentalist action.

Zeki Karataş, of the Sinop Anti-Nuclear Platform, also spoke at the rally.

"I am saluting all these people standing against those who have turned Sinop and Akkuyu into a bloodbath," said Zeki. The Switzerland Anti-Nuclear Platform also sent a solidarity message, noting, "your struggle is ours." In the nearby Kurdish city of Dersim, the Dersim People's Assembly held a solidarity rally with Sinop, chanting: "resist, Sinop, Dersim is with you."

(nt/cm)