‘This is a murder’: Construction equipment enters İstanbul’s Validebağ Grove

* Photo: Validebağ Volunteers / Twitter

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Construction equipment has once again entered the Validebağ Grove, which is located in İstanbul's Üsküdar district on the Anatolian side and classified as Grade 1 Natural and Historical Site Area.

Speaking to bianet about the incident, Arif Belgin from the Validebağ Volunteers has said that they, as the volunteers, came to the park at around 5 am today (September 21). Around half an hour later, the workers of the Üsküdar Municipality came and started pouring sand and rubble.

Belgin has indicated that the volunteers showed the workers the decision of stay of execution given by the court against the Landscaping and Rehabilitation Project attempted to be undertaken by the municipality; however, they could only stop them physically.

Belgin has said that there are several plain clothes police officers at the park. Noting that physical prevention is falling short of hindering the works, he has called on everyone to support Validebağ.

'This is a massacre'

Belgin has stated the following:

They have turned the grove into a battlefield. The narrow pathways of the grove have been expanded to such an extent that two vehicles can pass side by side. We don't know the exact number, but there are around 20-30 lorries now.

"We showed the decision of stay of execution, but they don't listen to us in any way at all. We can only stop them with physical prevention. But as there are plain clothes police officers, we are falling short.

"There are around 100 people defending the grove now. We call on everyone who is on the side of nature and green to come here. This is a murder. We expect everyone to defend Validebağ."

What happened?

The Validebağ Grove was certified as a "natural protected area" in 1999. Transferred to the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İMM) for two years in 2014, the grove started facing interventions in 2014.

Even though there were several mosques around the grove, a mosque was constructed at one of the entrances of the grove.

A "Nation's Garden" project was drafted for the grove in 2018; but this project was not realized thanks to the struggle of volunteers. In March 2020, the Üsküdar Municipal Council had an "emergency" meeting and allocated 261 thousand square meters of the Validebağ Grove, which belonged to the Treasury, to the Üsküdar Municipality for purposes of care and maintenance.

Nearly a year later, Minister of Environment and Urbanization Murat Kurum visited the grove on April 24 and announced on social media that they would introduce the "Landscaping and Rehabilitation Project" in the Validebağ Grove in cooperation with the Üsküdar Municipality.

In his speech on June 18, he said that the project would start in the grove on June 21. Shortly afterwards, the people of the neighborhood started keeping watch in the grove to prevent the project.

With the 17.6-million-lira tender, it was planned to turf an area of 88 decares. The İstanbul 11th Regional Administrative Court, in its decision dated July 30, ruled for the stay of execution by indicating that "irrecoverable damages might be caused by the de facto interventions to be made into the related immovable due to the action, the unlawfulness of which was proven."

Even though there were three decisions of stay of execution against the project, construction equipment entered the grove on September 2, 2021 to open the road foreseen in the project. The excavators were prevented by the people keeping watch in the grove.

About the Validebağ Grove

Located among the Altunizade, Koşuyolu and Acıbadem neighborhoods in Üsküdar in the Anatolian side of İstanbul, the Validebağ Grove hosts 130 of the 485 bird species, 31 of over 400 butterfly species in Turkey and 200 of 2,000 herbaceous plants in İstanbul.

101 tree, arbuscule and bush species have been identified in the grove, which is a Grade 1 Natural Site Area. Some of these trees are monumental trees. (TP/SD)