Turkey aims to ensure compliance of environmental law

By Zehra Aydin and Ayse Sensoy

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey will start taking legal action against thermal power plants that do not comply with the environmental legislation in the country, a minister said on Friday.

“We will carry out legal proceedings against [power plants] that are contrary to our environmental legislation, including the closure of facilities,” Turkey's Environment Minister Murat Kurum told Anadolu Agency.

Noting that the thermal power plants were already warned on taking necessary measures, Kurum said that Turkey will initiate the necessary legal process as of Jan. 1.

The Turkish Ministry of Environment, in cooperation with the Ministry of Energy, will inspect thermal power plants across the country in December, he added.

“We have 13 thermal power plants and their condition are different from each other,” Kurum said, adding while some plants have a filtration system, others don’t have it or is missing.

Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vetoed a law that would have delayed the installation of filters on thermal power plants, according to the spokesman for the country’s ruling party.

“Our president did not find the regulation appropriate and vetoed it,” Omer Celik, spokesman for the Justice and Development (AK) Party, told a news conference in Ankara.

On Thursday, the parliament’s planning and budget committee removed the filter installation postponement regulation in the law and passed by the general assembly.