TO THE WORLD GEOTHERMAL CONGRESS 2026 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

I am writing this letter to make you hear the Cry of Varto, a district of Muş province!

We have learned that within the scope of your Congress, on June 11, 2026, under the main heading of Technical Sessions, between 08:30 and 10:15, Cannur BOZKURT (Ignis H2 Energy Inc.) from Türkiye will deliver a presentation titled "Geothermal Potential of the Triple Junction Area in Eastern Anatolia (Türkiye)."

However, I want you to know that the project site is designated as a pasture, and utilizing this area outside of its pasture status is unlawful. Although the project site is registered as a "Key Biodiversity Area" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and Karlıova, Kargapazarı in Bingöl—along with Varto—are among the territories that must be protected, a fait accompli is being attempted. To bypass legal obstacles and evade the rightful backlash of the public, a decision stating that "there is no need for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report" was issued.

This lawlessness is unacceptable; hence, the lawsuit we filed against this decision and license is currently ongoing. In addition to the legal battle, public opposition has been growing steadily since February through widely attended community meetings across the region. In April, a protest rally joined by thousands of people was held in the district center of Varto. Furthermore, since May 3, a 24-hour uninterrupted vigil has been maintained in Çalıdere (Xarik) village—one of the 10 drilling areas—led by the Varto Ecology Platform. This gathering consists of a human collective including associations, NGOs, representatives from all villages of Varto, youth, and women, where local residents and people of all ages who have dedicated themselves to the ecological struggle keep watch continuously.

According to official records, Varto is an ancient geography at the foot of the Bingöl Mountains in Muş province, brought to life by the tributaries of the Murat River, where sacred beliefs and nature intertwine. For thousands of years, these lands have given life to their people through waters that serve as a source of healing. For the people of Varto, water is not merely a resource to be consumed; it is a sacred bond, a cultural heritage, and a social identity.

For centuries, Kurds have lived in our district with the highest density. Depending on the population distribution, communities belonging to different ethnic and cultural identities—such as Zazas, Armenians, Chechens, Circassians, and Turks—as well as Muslim, Shafi'i, and Alevi populations, alongside a small, remaining Christian population, continue to live side by side in peace despite everything.

Today, in our view, this geography faces the greatest ecological and social betrayal in its history. A Geothermal Power Plant (GPP), which might be a conventional and facilitating method in other countries like Iceland, will turn into an outright exploitation of nature here. This step is being forced upon the Varto and Karlıova region and the Yedisu line—an area that sacrificed thousands of its people to earthquakes in 1946 and 1966, and today stands directly at the active intersection of Türkiye’s three most active fault lines. When combined with the bureaucratic practices and lack of oversight in Türkiye, the outcome is catastrophic. GPP projects, as proven by bitter examples in Aydın (Germencik, etc.), are fundamentally an "ecocide" when it comes to Türkiye, no matter how much they are adorned with glossy and sympathetic terminology.

On one side, there is the hope planted in the 2020 report of DAKA (Eastern Anatolia Development Agency) claiming that thermal health tourism would be established in the region to appease the public; on the other side, there is the destruction detailed in IGNIS’s 2025 project description. The chasm between these two visions is a crossroads that will determine the future of not only Varto but the entirety of Mesopotamia.

The cumbersome structure of the bureaucracy in Türkiye has often blocked projects that truly benefit the public. Yet, a once-in-a-century opportunity for Varto could have been to find a new lease on life through a pristine health tourism project. Its valuable livelihoods, such as clean agricultural lands and natural livestock farming, could have been preserved. Today, however, even these resources are on the brink of being lost.

If the pristine nature of Karlıova and the Muş Plain—which serves as an insurance policy for Türkiye’s meat and dairy supply—is destroyed, it is inevitable that the country's long-standing healthy food bottleneck will peak as a direct consequence of choosing GPPs! The Muş Plain is one of the largest plains in Türkiye; the key to emerging from the crisis in meat and dairy products lies within these lands. The destruction of these resources by GPP projects will mean suicide not just for Varto, but for the food security of all of Türkiye.

As is well known, the Murat River is the largest tributary of the Euphrates; it merges with the Karasu to form the Euphrates, and these waters irrigate Mesopotamia before flowing into the Persian Gulf via the Shatt al-Arab. Boron and $H_2S$ gas released from the drillings in Varto, along with a single drop of arsenic mixing into the water, will poison the marine ecosystem thousands of kilometers away, the fish therein, and the Anatolian and Mesopotamian agriculture irrigated by those waters, spanning provinces like Muş, Bingöl, Elazığ, Adıyaman, Antep, and Urfa. This is not an attack solely on the people of Varto; without exaggeration, it is an assault on the collective water resource of humanity. It will result in a global ecocide.

The reports by IGNIS, where flora and fauna analyses were conducted from behind a desk and the biological diversity of the region was deliberately ignored, depict the Varto geography as a "steppe desert." Yet, the reality is entirely different. The lynx, mountain deer, wild goat, and golden eagle are the true owners of this basin and are indispensable components of the ecological balance. The endemic plant species thriving at the foothills of the Bingöl Mountains and the endemic fish species swimming in its streams—in fact, one of our villages is named after the trout—prove the biological richness of this geography. Ignoring them is not just an omission; it is an ecological crime.

For the people of Varto, the land is not merely an economic asset; it is a sacred domain of pilgrimage ("ziyaret"). According to the Raya Heq faith of the local Alevi population, many sacred sites, natural springs, and places of pilgrimage in the region fall directly within the impact zone of these projects.

Turning nature into an industrial site will sever the regional population's thousands-of-years-old bond with their culture of pilgrimage and faith. This cultural erosion will inherently trigger a wave of forced migration. The people, whose soil is poisoned, whose animals perish, and whose faith is wounded, will be forced to abandon their ancient homeland.

Slicing the project into pieces under the guise of "just exploratory drilling" to conceal its cumulative impacts is an evasion tactic defined by the judiciary as "project segmenting." Through this method, the public is misled, and the true scale of the area to be damaged by the GPP is hidden.

The people of Varto possess an ancient culture that wishes to use its water for healing. We will not sacrifice this water to turn the turbines of a corporation and release toxic gases into the atmosphere. The healing of Afyon and the tranquility of Yalova are rights that Varto deserves as well; the cancer-stricken soil of Aydın will not become the destiny of Varto.

This struggle belongs not only to Varto, Karlıova, and Yedisu, but to the whole of Anatolia and Mesopotamia. We are issuing a call for international solidarity: through UNESCO, the UN, Greenpeace, and countless unmentioned environmental and climate solidarity networks, the voice of Varto will reach the global public, and the worldwide scale of this ecocide will be exposed. This letter is a vital part of that call!

The people of Varto are defending their own water, their soil, and their future. This defense is not just an environmental struggle; it is the defense of humanity's shared right to life. We will not give consent to geothermal projects, nor to any other activities on our lands—such as mining—that will disrupt the natural environment!

We demand that the World Geothermal Congress 2026 Organizing Committee take into account the historical, cultural, ecological, and human rights dimensions of the region when evaluating the presentation regarding the project that the IGNIS company intends to carry out in Varto. We emphasize with gravity that no investment conducted without the consent of the people of Varto, which threatens nature and living spaces, can be deemed legitimate. We reject the depopulation of the region, the destruction of water resources, the cultural genocide that will occur by obliterating sacred places of faith and tearing people away from their roots, and the endangering of protected natural and endemic species.

As conscious individuals and non-governmental organizations regarding this matter, we call upon the IGNIS company to withdraw from the region immediately and cease threatening life in Varto and Karlıova.

In our view, Water is life and must not be commodified.

You may review the protests on our Social Media accounts; likewise, typing the terms "Varto Jeotermal" into search engines is sufficient to access thousands of images and news articles.

I sincerely hope that our voice, the Cry of Varto, has touched your hearts.

Respectfully yours,

From the people waging the Struggle for Ecology and Environmental Protection in Varto,

Author & Poet : Veli BEYAZGÜL

Instagram: Velibeyazgul

Instagram Account of the Platform: Varto.Ekoloji

#NoToGeothermalInVarto #VartoResists #DoNotDisruptTheEcosystem

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 TO THE WORLD GEOTHERMAL CONGRESS 2026 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE