{"id":148394,"date":"2026-08-19T04:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T04:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/148394\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T04:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T04:20:13","slug":"turkish-gendarmes-briefly-detain-4-villagers-protesting-fish-farming-project-in-black-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/148394\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkish gendarmes briefly detain 4 villagers protesting fish farming project in Black Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Turkish gendarmes briefly detained<\/a> four villagers on Tuesday during a protest against a commercial fish farming project that residents say threatens their traditional fishing grounds in the Black Sea province of Rize, Turkish media reported.<\/p>\n

The detentions took place in the fishing village of Zelek in the Pazar district, where residents have been holding a vigil to protest plans by the Kuzuo\u011flu Group to establish offshore fish farms near the village.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s chairman, Hasan Kuzuo\u011flu, is a former local official from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and ran for a city council seat on the party\u2019s ticket in the 2024 local elections.<\/p>\n

While gendarmes blocked access to the fishing harbor as the company brought materials to the area, villagers staged a sit-in to protest the closure, prompting an intervention in which Hacer Kanbay, Ahmet Tafral\u0131, \u0130brahim O\u011fuz and Muhammet Ya\u011fc\u0131 were detained. The four fishermen were later released on a prosecutor\u2019s orders without being questioned.<\/p>\n

Villagers say the company\u2019s permit to operate should not be used to justify restricting licensed local fishermen\u2019s access to the harbor, arguing that authorities should not facilitate the installation of fish cages at the expense of traditional fishing.<\/p>\n

The Kuzuo\u011flu Group plans three fish farming projects one kilometer off the coast, with a combined annual production capacity of 12,000 tons, nearly twice the 6,380 tons of fish produced across Rize in 2025.<\/p>\n

Residents have been protesting the project since August 2025 but ended their vigil after being told five months ago that it would not move forward. They resumed<\/a> the vigil in June after the company put a fish cage offshore and later brought two anchors to the harbor.<\/p>\n

Main opposition New Path Party lawmaker Tahsin Ocakl\u0131, who represents Rize in parliament, joined the villagers on Tuesday and criticized the gendarmerie\u2019s restrictions on access to the harbor. \u0130stanbul lawmaker \u0130skender Bayhan from the Labor Party (EMEP) also traveled to the area to show support for the villagers.<\/p>\n

G\u00fcnay Karafazl\u0131, the Rize representative of the Human Rights Association (\u0130HD), was initially prevented by gendarmes from entering the protest area but later allowed in following Ocakl\u0131\u2019s intervention.<\/p>\n

Turkey has seen repeated protests by local communities against mining, energy and other commercial projects approved under the ruling AKP, with residents citing threats to the environment and their livelihoods and some demonstrations resulting in interventions by security forces, detentions and arrests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turkish gendarmes briefly detained four villagers on Tuesday during a protest against a commercial fish farming project that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[70440,8823,70441,70442,70443,70444,312,27546,70445,2977,8828,70446,70447,131,132,70448,155],"class_list":["post-148394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-ahmet-tafrali","tag-environmental-activism","tag-fish-farming-project","tag-gunay-karafazli","tag-hacer-kanbay","tag-hasan-kuzuoglu","tag-human-rights","tag-human-rights-association-ihd","tag-ibrahim-oguz","tag-iskender-bayhan","tag-justice-and-development-party-akp","tag-kuzuoglu-group","tag-muhammet-yagci","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-tahsin-ocakli","tag-turkey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117120259100996816","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}