Cement Factory Protest meeting

[calvin 1949]

Chris Tippet ,get a life

[Scunner]

LOL

A good point, well argued.

[pookie]

Personally, I love lizards - and if you get to know them they are not slimy at all :  Now, some people, thats a different matter...

[jsp51]

Myself and my partner were at the meeting and I have to say that I found it quite emotional to see how passionate the Turks were about the possible devastation of their countryside. I also notiuced that when any speech was translated for the British people, the Turks were as enthusiastic with their applause as the Brits were. This alone leads me to believe that Chris's comments that the Turks are not bothered about us are just a figment of his somewhat strange imagination.
We intend to live in Uzumlu at some point, cement factory or not.
I would like to ask Chris a couple of  direct questions, why do you choose to live in a country where you appear to have no respect whatsoever for the locals, you obviously have no interest in making friends with the ex pats there and your precious property value (according to you) is spiraling down the the pan.
If I were in your posistion I think I would be on the next flight home.
Thanks to all who gave their time to attend and for the translations, we will be at future meetings if we are in Uzumlu. Keep up the good work it is apprieciated, by most of us anyway.

[carlan]

My partner and I are in the throws of becoming Uzumluareans!!! (Part time at first)Personally, we would not consider moving to someone else's country with the idea that we could somehow bring the locals round to 'our way of thinking'. The whole idea for us is to live as the locals do, to be a real part of the community, otherwise what is the point of leaving your own country if all you are looking for is a 'little England' somewhere else? To us the whole idea is to leave England very much behind!
We have been keeping up to date with the cement factory saga and are with everyone, locals and ex-pats who want this outrage stopped. I have to say though, we are behind the protest more on behalf of the locals, whose whole livelihood is at stake here, at least we can go 'home'!!

[friar tuck]

quote:Originally posted by calvin 1949

Whoop,s put my foot in it again sorry

You must have big feet to fill that cavity !!!

[K471DTE]

I would like to thank everyone who are taking part in these protests and who supports this brave action againts greedy B..ds...

You are all "very wellcome" to Turkey and decide to live with us and trying to be part of our community, bringing your own experiences. We should make most of it and enjoy it. Happyly. We have all we wish. It is upsetting me personally when I see comments like above. We don't need that. We all have our own small heavens and enough for all of us.

Let's continue to fight against this project togeteher, let's encourage people who are phisically 'there' fighting on also behalve of us. Let's keep them motivated. One day we will celebrate together, we will walk around and say: We did it !!!  We save it !!! We can leave this small haven to our children and grand children.

Of course we also must understand some of our collegues invested their life savings here. Of course this is a concern for them. But what ever the reason let's fight together.

Thank you.
Dogan

[chris tippett]

Dear Dogan, I don't know you but thanks for bringing a bit of much needed honesty and perspective to this debate, which is what I have tried to do - and all I have got is a load of personal abuse. Of course none of want this factory for a whole host of reasons - quality of life, scenery, future generations but as Dogan rightly says "some of our colleagues have invested their life savings here". My point exactly. I worked bloody hard for my money and I make no apologies for showing concern that my investment in Uzumlu is threatened by this blight.Hopefully the contractors will be beaten but whether we Brits have a real and genuine voice in the debate is, in my view, questionable. That's where I came in..........!!!!!!

[Eric]

Chris,

Stop being counter productive.  Are you naive enough to think that these threads are being read only by CBF members?  Anyone can read the comments without being a member.  I applaud free speech and have made such comments regarding this in the past, but on something as important as this we must not be seen as "whinging money grabbing ex-pats".
Every one who owns property has a large investment in it.  This investment is only realised when/if they intend to sell and move on.  Most people who I know, Ex-pats and Turkish alike, are here to stay.  Its where they have chosen to live, work, retire and probably die (Not meaning to be morbid)  Those who are worried about their 'investment' are generally those who want to make a profit out of an area or situation and move on.  Which are you?
You ask if "we Brits have a real and genuine voice in the debate".  The answer is a resounding YES.  We Ex-pats, not just Brits, have assisted our Turkish neighbours right from the start.  We have access to area's where they do not, for example; British Euro MP's who have taken up this cause and have presented the case to the Turkish committee who are negotiating for entry into the EEC as how not to behave if they wish to be a member of the EEC.  The British Consulate in Ankara who have taken up this cause and are investigating the legalities of it with the Turkish Ministry of the Environment in Ankara.  The Authorities both local and regional are seeing a united front in this fight, ex-pats have the experience of coming from a more democratic country and Turkish neighbours can see that a fight/cause can be won.  Using the 'my house is losing value' argument, by either ex-pats or Turks, will not win any fight, it will only undermine the arguments and detract from the environmental issues, health issues and long term economic plight of the farmers of the valley who will lose their livelihood and income.  Is this not a real loss of investment and life savings?
Please stop being cynical, the real investment is in the health, welfare and continuing livelihood of these communities, not some short term monetary gain from buying and selling houses.  If you support this cause then you will stop commenting on your potential monetary loss and be more supportive of our Turkish neighbours and friends in this fight.  Take on board ALL of Dogan's comments not just the selective parts that support your misguided argument

Eric

[K471DTE]

Dear Eric,

Thank you for clarification and very good update. I was (maybe most of us ) not aware of all these actions. Impressive. In fact this is what I ment by saying "bringing your own experiences"...  without our english collegues, we would never go that far. I guess this will cancell saying 'brits has no word to say'... I agree every single comments you made.

Dear Chris,

I am Turkish, living in Belgium (lived in Briton for 7-8 years )and have little investment in Incirkoy but have place in calis. Hoping to die one day in Fethiye. Very happy to have people like you and other as neighbours.

Pls try to see the way Eric's and us see. No one is ignoring people's investments. But, tragedy is much more then that and we have no case to win only if we see it as "loose of value for our properties" and investments and.. etc...  this kind of developments happening in everywhere in europe now. I am living in middle of europe, in fact hart of europe, Liege airport had permission for night flights, after long-long  court cases, local government asked and forced to pay compensation for our properties. Beleive me, the impact to community was huge... even with some good pay outs damage was too heavy.. I can not evaluate only with money. It is too long to write at this forum. I was in Poland 10 days ago ( KTW ) same case. They just 'pay-out'and that's it. Means we all have value in $$$ that can be paid...  sorry not me. And I am happy to see I am not alone in this forum...

Pls be supportive to people who are acting and doing and making it and happeneing. At the end, it will also solve your problem too... I really do beleive and strong hope that they will stop this sh.t happening there. But they will not stop if our 'brave' people will not stand against it. It is as simple is that.

I just had news that, they also stop gold mining research in north west part of Turkey (Kaz Mountains ) which was killing the most valuable forest in Europe, third in the world...

Keep on figting.

K Rgds
Dogan