In the Lice (Licê) district of Diyarbakır (Amed), a copper mining operation launched by the company Dimin Madencilik has devastated the local environment. Armed with an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, the company has drilled into a mountain in the village of Kılıçlı (Mizag), leaving it riddled with holes. After securing permits for a second site, they began new drilling there as well. Before opening the new wells, the company cut down dozens of trees and dried up a stream that local villagers used to water their animals. Women from the village report that neither they nor their livestock can survive under these conditions. In response, they now go almost daily to the mining site, where they try to block the excavators and physically close the drilling pits with their bare hands. Fighting to defend their land and way of life, the women repeatedly declare they will not abandon their territory. To the company’s employees, they deliver a clear message: “Get off our land.”
Expert report ignored the water, the trees, and the villagers
The mining operation, which affects the neighborhoods of Akçabudak, Kılıçlı, Bayırlı, Ulucak, Baharlar, Güldiken, Yorulmaz, and Saydamlı in Lice, has caused serious ecological and health damage. The company holds a license for 700 hectares, but in order to obtain a “no EIA required” decision, it limited the project area to just 24.87 hectares. In 2020, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change granted the project a decision stating that an EIA was not required. Last year, villagers filed a lawsuit with the 4th Administrative Court of Diyarbakır demanding that the mining operation be halted. The case, filed with a request for a “stay of execution” against the Dimin Madencilik company’s copper mining and crushing-screening facility, led the court to order a new expert site inspection, which was carried out last month. However, the expert report produced after the inspection ruled in favor of the company, while making no mention of the local villagers’ water sources or livelihoods.
The report also failed to include any analysis of groundwater levels, surface water presence, or the region’s hydrological structure. While the EIA file stated that no water source existed in the area, it completely ignored the fact that the streambed sustaining the village’s economy had dried up due to mining. Villagers have strongly protested the process. Women, determined to protect their living spaces, continue to visit the mining site almost every day to halt operations. The women of Kılıçlı repeatedly demand that the mining company leave their village and draw attention to the political repression their village has faced in the past.
They go to the mine site every day
One of the women who walks nearly two kilometers uphill each day and stands in front of the excavators with a stick in her hand is 56-year-old Azize Alan. In 1994, the residents of Kılıçlı had their village burned down for refusing to accept the village guard system. Years later, despite limited means, they returned and rebuilt their lives. They constructed single-story homes for themselves and their animals and resumed life on their land through animal husbandry and beekeeping. The villagers plant gardens and produce dairy and honey products, sustaining themselves through what they grow. However, life changed dramatically after the mining company entered their village. The streams dried up, their gardens stopped yielding vegetables, and their animals were left without pasture. While the company profits, the villagers are losing the modest life they managed to rebuild with great difficulty. Trees have been cut down, the mountains torn apart, and most recently, new drilling wells have been opened atop the hills.
As trees were felled in the new drilling area, villagers, concerned about the risk of landslides, stormed the site with their walking sticks. Women confronted workers at the scene, demanding answers and protesting the destruction. While they struggle to protect their living spaces, company workers ignored the deforestation and mining roads around them, casually telling the villagers, “We are doing good things for you here.”
Azize Alan, expressing the spirit of their struggle, declared: “I would not trade a single stone from my land for gold.” She added that neither the harsh path they walk each day nor the pressures they face will make them surrender.
Alan said, “We’ve suffered every kind of harm from this mine. There’s nothing we haven’t been through. They cut down our trees, dried up our water, and damaged our mountains. There’s no water left for the animals, the birds, or the people. We used to harvest plenty of vegetables, but now we cannot even get peppers or tomatoes. Our entire garden has dried up. They’ve never done anything to benefit us. We are villagers, what matters to us are our gardens and our animals,” and voicing the losses the community has endured.
They tried to silence us with threats
Azize Alan stated that while mining companies enrich themselves by destroying nature, the villagers are left without food or water. She said their protests have been met with pressure and threats: “They leave this village without water, then go off and grow rich themselves. Everyone used to benefit from this water, from these fruits, but now no one can eat anything. When we raise our voices, they come and threaten us, try to intimidate us. And we say: ‘Leave our village. What are you doing here?’ It’s a shame for this land, a shame for these people. We’ve told them over and over again: ‘Get out!’ But they listen to neither words nor reason.”
We will continue resisting the excavators
Alan emphasized that the villagers stand in front of the excavators every day and that their resistance will not end: “They dried up our stream and then polluted the piped water. We are completely fed up with them. Every day we go stand in front of the machines and tell them, ‘We will not leave this place to you.’ As long as there is even one stone left, we will not leave. This is our land, not theirs. We will continue to defend our own soil and our own village.”
Firstly they bombed the village, now they want to destroy it with a mine
Azize Alan emphasized that despite the village being burned and bombed in the past, they never left and they still will not: “They burned this village, they bombed it, but we didn’t leave. We came back. When they came here for inspection, they told us, ‘Leave, what are you doing here?’ I told them, ‘You leave.’ Why should I leave my own land? I was born and raised here, and my children will grow up here too. No matter what happens, we are staying. They want to wipe out this homeland, this land. Even if they filled my house with gold, I wouldn’t trade it for a single stone. This place is my future, my everything. You can’t measure its value with money.”
They will leave, we will stay
She concluded her words with a powerful message: “We are not leaving. They will go, we will stay. Let them kill us if they want, but we are not giving up this place. Everyone must hear our voice. Those mine bosses and the rich must hear these words. Let this resistance be an example for all. We will keep standing in front of those excavators.”
Source: ANF News
