Ceren Karlıdağ/JINHA

IZMIR - 85-year-old Rezmiye Saatlı has emerged victorious from her one-woman struggle to stop the construction of a wind plant that would displace farmers and destroy nature in the Aegean area of Turkey.

Remziye Saatlı's struggle began in 1980, when she purchased a plot of land in the Aegean region of Turkey with the hopes of starting an olive grove of her own. But her second battle began when a private energy company attempted to build a wind farm in the area. Recently, Remziye won her years-long battle against the company: the Turkish state council ruled to stop the eminent domain decision for the land.

"Everyone has their good side. Mine is being hardworking," said Remziye, by way of introduction. "I worked for 30 years. We weren't a rich family; all I wanted was for us to have a field, a few trees." That was how Remziye began her one-woman struggle to build an olive grove among the biting snakes in a place where "everything was stone; you couldn't even take a step." She recalled sewing a layer of foam under her dress to stop the thorns from tearing her legs.

"I made a field from those stones," she said. Remziye planted fig, apple, pear and olive trees. "I looked after each tree one by one. 35 years later, those olive trees I planted are huge."

In 2009, Remziye decided to expand her farm by buying a new plot of land. But four years later, when she arrived at the site, she saw massive concrete molds in the middle of her field. She learned that the land had already been sold: in 2008, to a company hoping to build a wind electricity farm on the mountainside.

Remziye noted that it was possible to build wind farms in areas where no one lived or in the sea. In Turkey, she said, the government freely gave title to the land to energy companies. Remziye began a legal process against the wind plant. Last week, she learned that the decision was canceled. The court noted in its ruling that wind farms are "not always a good idea." Her lawyer Hande Atay says the decision will be an important precedent to stop seizures of land.

"When there are huge mountains and empty fields just sitting there, is it right to turn the fields that we worked into a wind plant?" asked Remziye. "Better ask that to the owner of the company. I wonder, if they had worked for years, if they had made something from nothing with their own hands, could they stand to do such a thing?"

(mg/cm)