The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government has started building a third bridge over the Bosporus complete with a highway. There are also plans to build a major airport in Ýstanbul's last remaining forested area and another project that is the personal brainchild of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, to create a new waterway between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, an alternative route to the Bosporus strait. Scientists, environmentalists and ecological groups have raised serious concerns regarding all these projects, but the authorities have dismissed these worries, saying they know what they are doing. Critics of the projects also claim that such construction projects can be realized with minimal risk to the environment, if only those carrying them out worked together with ecologists. But the government has persistently claimed that those who publicly voice such concerns only look to dismiss the government.
Today's Zaman directed about 14 technical questions -- mainly about the third bridge project but also about other environmental issues -- to the two ministries on Oct. 22. After much phoning imploring the ministries to answer Today's Zaman's questions, the Urban Development and Environment Ministry replied to only two of the questions through its public relations agency. The Ministry of Forestry did not respond at all. Today's Zaman wasn't surprised as this is not the first time it has sought answers for questions the public wants to know, but this time Today's Zaman made it clear to the ministries that the questions would be made public.
Ministries don't want to talk
Even more unfortunately, in its quest to get some simple information about the planned mega-projects that experts say will deal irreparable damage to the environment and have irreversible effects on ecology and climate, Today's Zaman also found that it is not alone in being snubbed. This is important, as a Sunday's Zaman article published on Oct. 20 on the destruction caused by the ongoing third bridge construction had been rebuked on social media by a prime ministerial aide for not doing enough to reflect the ministries' views and explanations on the projects, although no ministry had sent a notice denying anything the report was saying.
Today's Zaman's questions are not the only ones that went unanswered. Most environmental organizations have the same belief: The ministries simply do not want to talk about the projects.
Çare Olgun Çalýþkan from the Northern Forests Defense Platform, a group bringing together dozens of civil society organizations and professional chambers to fight the destruction of Ýstanbul forests, said he and other civil society organizations have been trying to contact the Ýstanbul AK Party branch, Mayor Kadir Topbaþ, the Prime Minister's Office, the governor's office, headquarters of political parties, local branches of political parties and relevant ministries to talk about the projects and present their reports. “We have had no more luck than you,” he told Today's Zaman. He said countless attempts to schedule an appointment with Mayor Topbaº and other city officials have gone unanswered.
Greenpeace policy expert Deniz Gümüºel said she has not queried any of the ministries directly through the Right to Information Act, but said her previous work in other civil society organizations that late responses to official queries and too often getting answers that do not match the questions are common.
Aarhus and Right to Information
Gümüºel also noted that Turkey has been extremely unwilling to sign the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, usually abbreviated as the Aarhus Convention, which states that governments have to be accountable about environment projects and ensures the rights of the public to be included in environment-related projects. It grants citizens wider rights of access to information, including commercial data concerning companies, she explained.
