Advancing Ecocide Law in Türkiye: Responding to Environmental Catastrophe
This guest blog was authored by İlksen Dinçer Baş, Coordinator for End Ecocide Türkiye.
There are some moments when ecological destruction is so acutely visible and disruptive to our daily lives that people cannot help but take notice, and the need for action becomes inevitable. So it was with the thick, grey slime that blanketed Türkiye’s Sea of Marmara on the coast of Istanbul in the summer of 2021.
The subsequent year, an incidence of severe pollution at a gold mining site was another focal point for public outrage. The failure of accountability that both instances spotlighted was a major catalyst for progress for Türkiye’s movement to make ecocide, the mass destruction of nature, a crime.
The Sea of Marmara
The Marmara is a unique, biodiverse hotspot where the black sea meets the Mediterranean, a biological corridor for migrating fish and a destination of migration for species affected by warming and coral bleaching.
In 2021, the delicate ecosystem of the Sea of Marmara became overwhelmed by a substance called mucilage, also known by the more vivid name ‘sea snot’. Mucilage effectively creates a blanket over the water, absorbing oxygen and suffocating marine life beneath, before sinking and covering the seafloor where it causes further damage.
Indeed, the explosion of mucilage in the Marmara set in motion a catastrophic die-off of marine life. This phenomenon had human consequences too; tourism plummeted that summer as people could not enjoy the sea, and fishermen struggled to bring in their catch.
This was an avoidable tragedy. Although it was made more likely by rising sea temperatures, a key trigger was the extreme discharge of wastewater, including untreated sewage and industrial waste into the sea. Despite repeated warnings of the dangers, waste was channelled into the deep sea.
Another human-induced disaster
Not long after the disaster in the Marmara, the Çöpler gold mine in the East of the country became yet another focal point for public outrage in Turkiye. A disaster was long in the making for the mine, which uses the risky extractive process of heap leaching and has been the subject of repeated negligence on the part of the operator. In 2022, there was a catastrophic cyanide leak, with 20 cubic metres of cyanide entering the local Karasu River, one of two sources of the Euphrates River.
Accountability
Despite the release of cyanide from the Çöpler gold mine into the natural environment, there was no genuine accountability, with the Canadian operator responsible receiving a fine of one million dollars and being allowed to restart its operations at the site just three months after. Inevitably, negligent practices continued, and in 2024 a 10 million tonne heap leach of cyanide-laced ore collapsed, killing nine workers and spilling the toxic leachate into the environment, likely causing further harm to the Euphrates.
Similarly, the assault on the ecosystem of the Sea of Marmara was the culmination of years of impunity for systematic wastewater pollution. Even the very visible and public nuisance caused by the mucilage in 2021 has failed to stem the destructive practices that have caused it, leading to the persistence of the harmful substance.
The movement to criminalise ecocide
There is now a rapidly growing global movement to criminalise ecocide, the mass destruction of nature, both at the international level and in domestic and regional jurisdictions around the world. In the past year, there has been progress domestically from Peru to Scotland, and at the regional level the EU has introduced qualified offences that can be ‘comparable to ecocide’ and the Council of Europe recently agreed a treaty to criminalise cases ‘tantamount to ecocide’. Most excitingly, 2024 saw a historic proposal from three Pacific Island nations to make ecocide the fifth crime at the level of the International Criminal Court.
Despite these leaps forward, in most of the world, ecocide is not yet a crime. The gap in accountability for environmental crime within our legal systems sends a clear message to decision-makers that persistent environmental destruction, and the associated loss of precious habitats and ecosystems vital to protecting biodiversity, climate and people, is permissible.
Bringing the movement to Türkiye
Outrage at the environmental catastrophes in 2021-22 motivated citizen-led actions in Türkiye. An International Meeting on Ecocide in 2022 was a pivotal development, which resulted in a proposal for a domestic crime of ecocide within Turkish law in 2022.
While this was a welcome step towards acceptance of ecocide as a serious national issue, this legislation proposed penalties that were not regulated by criminal law, undermining the severity of the offence and the weight of its protection for the environment.
Establishing clear and stringent penalties within the Penal Code would be a significant step forward in our fight against environmental destruction in Türkiye. This is a crucial distinction because the deterrence effect of ecocide law lies in the fact that it can impose serious sanctions on senior decision-makers, deterring them from taking decisions that cause serious harm.
In a positive recent development, Nimet Özdemir MP from the Republican People's Party (CHP), also introduced a second, separate ecocide bill, directly proposing criminal penalties for severe environmental destruction. Moreover, in a further sign of growing political support in Türkiye, there has been cross-party support for criminalising ecocide from members of other political parties, including İbrahim Akın MP of the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), as well as representatives from the İYİ Party and the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA).
However, with none of these proposals yet having been debated in parliament, there is a lack of clarity about how to proceed with these proposals. That’s why we must advocate for a comprehensive legal debate on this issue in parliament. Engaging in this crucial dialogue could lead to a more cohesive and effective framework that truly serves to protect our environment from ecocide.
That is also why, in 2023, I was involved in a citizens’ initiative to set up a petition to amend Türkiye’s penal code to include a crime of ecocide. We managed to gather 29,000 signatures and the petition was presented to the Turkish parliament at the end of 2023, gaining the support of the CHP, the country’s main opposition party.
Recently, a Choirs for Ecocide Law concert in Istanbul was also an incredible opportunity to bring the movement for ecocide law to a new audience and its warm reception once again demonstrated the popular appeal of criminalising mass harm to nature.
Making ecocide an international crime
In addition to the domestic proposal, at End Ecocide Türkiye we believe that ecocide must also be criminalised at the international level. As the Çöpler gold mine incident and its effect on the Euphrates shows, pollution and other environmental harms do not respect national borders in their impacts. Moreover, as in this case, they are often perpetrated by foreign entities.
While Türkiye is not currently a member of the International Criminal Court, harms like the pollution of the Euphrates could hold Turkish decision-makers accountable when the harms that they are responsible for extend into a member state’s jurisdiction.
The way forward
The continuation of the mass discharge of wastewater in the Marmara and the repetition of the disaster at the Çöpler mine starkly illustrate how existing regulations fail to deter even the most foreseeable and preventable mass environmental harms. The time to act is now. Recognising ecocide as a crime — both nationally and internationally — is not just a legal necessity, but a moral imperative.