We publish the call for a public meeting organised in Brussels, Belgium, by Grec.ques solidaires, ZinTv and CADTM on the developments around the war, the energy crisis and the environment in the East Mediterranean. The meeting will be held on June 11, and will include speakers from the environmental movements of Turkey and Greece. More details will be announced soon.
“Energy war and the environmentalist movements in Greece, Turkey and Cyprus: from the EastMed pipeline to the war in Ukraine”
a discusion organised by Gre.ques solidaires, ZinTv and CADTM, with keynote speakers from the initiative “Μας σκάβουν τον λάκκο / Kazma Birak”
The “Μας σκάβουν τον λάκκο” (They are digging our pitfall, in Greek) initiative coordinates environmental groups from Turkey, Greece and Cyprus that oppose the threat of war in the Eastern Mediterranean posed by fossil fuel extraction.
Against mining projects being planned in the land and the seas of Eastern Mediterranean, these groups decided about a year and a half ago to join forces. The geopolitical conflict between the three countries may be going through various phases, but it is not going to stop. Last January, the Greek government proudly flew its newly purchased Rafale aircrafts in the sky of Athens, while all three countries are splashing out vast amounts of money on military armaments. At the same time, exploratory drilling in the Mediterranean seabed continued with dramatic consequences for the ecosystems of the region.
Industrial-scale renewable energy infrastructure is being destructively deployed on islands, plains and mountains, the mining and use of lignite is on the rise, nuclear energy has been dubbed “green” and is being developed (with the nuclear power plant being built by Turkey at the Akkuyu area, north of Cyprus, being a typical example).
The recent earthquakes and forest fires on both sides of the Aegean Sea have shown that the environmental and social problems are the same for all people; rather, it is our governments that are pitting one against the other, backed by their transnational patrons.
The war in Ukraine has given another dimension to these issues. With the pretext of the energy crisis all “commitments” made by the leaders at COP26 in Glasgow a few months ago were ditched in the blink of an eye. The geopolitical battle of various blocs and alliances for energy resources seems to be intensifying. In this context there are efforts to revive interest in the EastMed pipeline project (considered clinically dead only a few months ago) and to restart drilling exploration in the Ionian Sea (Western Greece) and in the vicinity of the island of Crete.
For all these reasons, Grec.ques solidaires, ZinTv and CADTM decided to invite representatives from the “They are digging our pitfall” initiative in order to establish a bond between the environmental movements from the Eastern Mediterranean and Belgium, to exchange views, to get informed, to discuss and to organize ourselves.
We want this meeting to be a stepping stone for a meaningful dialogue between these movements on how to deal together with the destruction of the environment and nationalist antagonism.
See you on 11 June at 17.00 at the CBO, Chaussée de Jette 407, 1090 Jette (next to the Simonis metro station).
Grec.ques solidaires
