DEM Party Co-Chair Opposes Cyanide Mining in Kurdish Southeast Turkey

Tuncer Bakırhan, co-chair of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party, addressed an ecology rally in Giyadîn (Diyadin) in Diyarbakır province opposing cyanide-based gold mining projects, framing environmental protection as inseparable from Kurdish territorial sovereignty and self-determination.^[1]

Bakırhan’s rhetoric connected ecological degradation to broader questions of resource control in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast. “We will never leave our lands to those who want to poison our soil just to take a piece of gold and leave,” he stated, according to reports.^[1] He invoked what he characterized as a foundational principle: “The real peace is peace with the land. It is peace with the Kurds’ water, mountains, plains and the people and living beings on them.”^[1]

The DEM Party co-chair cited specific regions where mining has intensified – Şırnak, Gabar, Besta, and Cudi mountains, as well as areas in Bitlis and Bingöl – claiming that Turkish authorities have permitted mining companies to claim “almost every mountain, flowing water and plain.”^[1] He called for immediate cessation of mining operations: “Take your hands off our pastures, our water and our lands.”^[1]

Bakırhan referenced a recent four-hour meeting with Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), stating that ecological protection ranks among Öcalan’s core political priorities alongside language rights, Kurdish identity, and equal citizenship within Turkey.^[1] This framing positions environmental activism within the DEM Party’s broader negotiating agenda with Turkish state authorities, who have held Öcalan in custody since his 1999 capture.

The rally reflects a strategic pivot within Turkish Kurdish politics. Environmental opposition to extractive industries has become a vehicle for articulating territorial claims and resource autonomy without directly invoking separatism. The DEM Party, which entered parliament in 2023 with 84 seats, has sought to reposition Kurdish political demands around governance, citizenship, and institutional reform rather than independence.

Turkey’s mining sector has expanded significantly in southeastern regions over the past decade, with gold, copper, and rare earth extraction accelerating under government concessions. Cyanide-based extraction methods pose documented risks to groundwater and agricultural systems in water-scarce regions – a particular concern in southeastern Anatolia where irrigation-dependent agriculture and pastoral economies depend on aquifer stability.

Bakırhan’s framing of mining opposition as a peace agenda signals that environmental governance has become a negotiating point in Turkey’s long-running Kurdish settlement discussions. Whether Ankara interprets resource control demands as manageable policy adjustment or as a proxy for territorial autonomy will shape the trajectory of ongoing political negotiations.