Sevgi Konuk resides in Istanbul's Beykoz district with her five dogs and is a natureloving woman who has been struggling to save her local environment from contaminating construction debris. Sevgi Konuk, who lives in the Mahmutşevketpaşa village, informed Sabah newspaper that unregistered trucks illegally bring construction remains to the public land in front of her house. The result of her opposition to the increasing environmental damage has been a series of threatening phone calls, but Konuk stands tall in the face of this. She has submitted a criminal complaint to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, the Beykoz Municipality and the Beykoz Public Prosecution Office.
This courageous woman stands alone against further environmental risk. Her five dogs are helping her to follow the unregistered trucks day and night. "I have five dogs. They bark every time the trucks pass by my house. Even if I am sleeping, I wake up to their noise and write down the arrival time," Konuk said. Renting a village house to stay in touch with nature, she continued to take notes for months.
Her list begins with two small trucks which arrived on Feb. 15, 10:56 a.m. The most recent incident was on May 11, 09:30 a.m., with two trucks recorded. A total of four hundred trucks carried construction debris to the village. Living alone in her house, Konuk became suspicious about the trucks without license plates.
Konuk was sexually harassed and abused on the telephone by A.B., a man who helps the truck drivers when they arrive. The man is reported to live in a jerry-built shack near Konuk's house.She urged officials to support her fight against this illegal activity.
