The Turkish Delight, Summer 2009

Taking into account all legal changes in the mining sector together with the environmental regulations since 1980s, one can say Turkey’s attitude towards the transnational mining business has been favorable. The necessity to abide by the international environmental regulations, particularly the EU acquis has stimulated the introduction of environmental concerns into economic enterprises, including the mining sector. Collaboration between the state and mining lobby in raising aspirations for scaling up mining investments with global economy has profound impacts in ultimate legal restructuring of the mining sector, but it at the same time impairs accountability of government policies as the voices of local communities are marginalized in decision making process. By calling for the inclusion of concerns of local community perspectives in discussing new mining investments, this article argues that the state should move beyond the corporate perspective and take into consideration a multi-stakeholder approach.

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