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'Don't Come If You Like Gold': Turks March Against Planned Gold Mine

Reuters

   KIRAZLI, TURKEY - Thousands of Turks including opposition lawmakers
   staged a peaceful and unusually large protest on the outskirts of a
   small western town on Monday against what they say will be pollution
   from a foreign-owned gold mine project.

   Public opposition to the site owned by Dogu Biga Mining, the Turkish
   subsidiary of Canada-based Alamos Gold, mounted after the firm
   allegedly cut down four times the number of trees than it declared in
   an environmental impact report.

   Near the town of Kirazli in Turkey's Canakkale province, a few dozen
   environmentalists have slept in tents since July 26 as part of what
   they call a "Watch for Water and Conscience."

   Activists say cyanide will be used to extract gold in the Alamos
   project and will contaminate the soil and waters of a nearby dam. The
   Turkish government rejects charges that the mine will damage the
   environment and denies cyanide will be used.

   Turkish environmentalists were part of protests in 2013 over a project
   to demolish Istanbul's Gezi Park, which grew into nationwide
   anti-government unrest that prompted a violent security crackdown and
   hundreds of arrests.

   On Monday, some 5,000 protesters from across the country gathered on a
   hill near the planned mine site carrying signs reading: "Don't come if
   you like gold," and "We can do without gold, we can't do without the
   Kaz Mountains."

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