Barriers to Environmental Movements in Turkey
Barriers to Environmental Movements in Turkey

Strategies of Investors and Public Authorities in Bypassing Environmental Resistance

Summary/Abstract: Turkish environmental policy has a number of problems given the country’s environmentalproblems, the pace of investment decisions envisaged for the near future and the way theyare treated by the public authorities. Environmental movements are expected to articulate environmental concerns, shape and organise popular environmental resistance through a repertoire of means from providing alternatives to legal action and direct involvement in the process.Although there is a legal and institutional framework for environmental policy-making and implementation in Turkey, discourses that prioritise economic development over environmental concerns have a hegemonic character and both public authorities and private investors employ a number of strategies in bypassing environmental resistance in Turkey. Strategies like bringing environmental movement leaders to court with spying charges; making alterations in legal and institutional framework in due course of events; introducing new barriers to taking legal action through raising expert fees and a number of other mechanisms like delayed courtprocesses effectively function as a barrier to environmental movements and negatively influence the effectiveness of environmental movements in Turkey.

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