Locals vow to keep fighting to save a forest in southwest Turkey after the chainsaws finish work

By ANDREW WILKS

ISTANBUL (AP) — Campaigners fighting to protect woodlands earmarked for coal-mining in southwest Turkey say they will maintain their fight as tree-felling comes to an end. Locals have held a four-year vigil in Akbelen forest to hold off logging that paves the way for a lignite mine near the village of Ikizkoy in Mugla province. “They massacred our forest,” Nejla Isik, from the Ikizkoy Environment Committee, said Monday at a meeting with lawyers reported by the Duvar newspaper. Chainsaw teams that arrived to start felling trees a week ago have now finished their work, following violent confrontations between police dispatched to guard the operation and residents.