Police said Sunday that a suspect, who was ordered to burn a forest in southern Türkiye by the terrorist group PKK, was captured. The suspect, identified as A.K., was caught in Antalya where he was to carry out the crime.
The suspect was under surveillance for his involvement with the PKK propaganda and a tip-off to the police that he tried to obtain sulphuric acid and was planning an attack. A.K., who arrived in the Mediterranean province from the central province of Kayseri, was working at a construction site in Antalya. He was detained in the Finike district. Police found sulphuric acid and a map of Antalya after searching his residence.
Interrogated by police, A.K. confessed his contacts with the terrorist group. He told police that a terrorist he knew as "Devran Rojhat," who is currently in Syria, instructed him to set fires in several places across Antalya. He said Devran Rojhat supplied him with money and videos on building hand-made devices that can be used in starting the forest fires.
The PKK has a long history of burning Türkiye's forests as a method of "vengeance" from the Turkish state and causing civilian deaths and environmental destruction in the process.
Wildfires, aggravated by the fallout from climate change, threaten Türkiye's evergreen land. The country saw 226,845 hectares of forests damaged or completely burned between 2012 and 2021, with more than 61% of this loss taking place in 2021 alone. Data from the Directorate General of Forestry (OGM) shows that 27,150 forest fires occurred across the country in the past decade. Fires, though not uncommon, appear to have increased, something blamed on strong winds spreading them and searing temperatures further aggravating the situation.
