
Mount Ida is Mythologic
I heard, then read about the cutting off tens of thousands of trees on Mount Ida, a.k.a Kaz Dagi as they call it in Turkish. Apparently, the Turkish government allowed a Canadian company to explore for gold on Mount Ida, Kaz Dagi. To facilitate the explorations, a huge area was shaved clean to make room for vehicles and excavation. The first images I saw were quite shocking, the top of the mountain, a large swath of land was barren, no trees anywhere. Here is a view of the bald mountain, the photograph is from the Sozcu newspaper showing the barren Mount Ida:

Protests Will Not Bring Trees Back
There are protests, investigations, interviews all attempting to stop this project for a variety of reasons. The trees are gone, it is irreversible, although the government claims that they have planted 14,000 new trees somewhere. The current concern is the mining and exploration process, which will apparently use cyanide. The environmental and human health consequences of using highly toxic materials are very concerning. Thus, the protests and demonstrations.
The Canadian company, Alamos Gold, Inc., claims that they had no involvement with the cutting of the trees, and it was carried out by the Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture of Turkey. And they, in turn, dispute the number of trees being cut, as well as the location being away from Mount Ida (Kaz Dagi.)
Just Wanted to Share Experiences
My purpose in writing this is not to report what is right and what is wrong, the facts are too far removed from me. I wanted to write this post and share my experience of visiting Mt. Ida when I was in Ayvalik in 2012. We took a ride to a small village, Kalkim, with Binnaz and Ergun. Although the village was underwhelming, the journey was quite enchanting, Hanlar location in particular, with majestic plane trees. I took many photographs on the hills of Mount Ida. Now, I would like to share the trees of Mt. Ida in memory of the trees the mountain and the country have lost.
Who knows, maybe some of these trees I photographed were among the casualties of gold mining. But, in any case, I hope that these photographs and the downloadable PDF book can help save the memories of the trees lost forever. Feel free to download, save, and enjoy the book. It is my very small contribution to the memory, history, and dignity of Mt. Ida.
Here are some links to various media reporting of the related events. A search will provide many more sources:
Hurriyet Daily News
Sozcu (In Turkish)
BBC News (in Turkish)
The Observers
Feel free to add more links to the related news by writing a comment. I will permit all civilized comments and the links they may have.
Here is the PDF file download. (A click will start a download to your device)
Here are the photographs
James Turner
Trees are living monuments to time passed. So stately. Turkey, as I understand from you has not trees in its cities and now treeless mountains. Money can be evil.
A. Cemal Ekin
You are right, Jim. They were indeed monumental trees when I saw them.
Cemal
Markus
Thanks for sharing the photographs and the fine pdf. Unfortunately cutting down the trees is so much easier than building and nourishing a sensitivity for the environment in our kids.
A. Cemal Ekin
How true, Marcus. Additionally, the same people seem to be so insensitive to public opinion. as well.
Cemal
Haluk Atamal
It is hardly possible to write civilized comments, reading many sources with different truth levels and seeing a lot of protests, both mostly right and unfortunately many wrong. Cutting trees like they did is definitely not acceptable, that is a fact and probably the only clear truth.
On the other hand, unless one is involved deeply and knows what is going on behind the curtains, I find it not extremely wise to write any comments, let alone uncivilized ones like many do.
All I can do is to mourn for the unfortunate damage given to the nature because I had no more control other than one single vote, falling weak and leewaying those who brought everything to this point.
Thanks for sharing and the lovely pdf gift, Cemal.
A. Cemal Ekin
Haluk, as I said, the facts are far removed from me. That’s why I refrained from reaching a conclusion beyond the lost trees. That is indeed a shame and Mt. Ida is indeed wounded. I just wanted to offer a memento of those trees.
Take care,
Cemal