Environmentalists lock participants of ceremony in Akkuyu
MERSİN (DİHA) - A group of protesters have locked the attendees of the ground breaking ceremony for Turkey’s first nuclear power plant to protest the construction of the plant in Mersin.
Environmentalists from Mersin’s Gülnar neighborhood locked the iron doors of the nuclear facility in the Akkuyu district, isolating several guests and journalists. Carrying banners comparing the Akkuyu power plant with Japan’s Fukushima power plant, protesters had gathered near the venue hours before the ceremony for the ground breaking of the future plant’s marine hydro-technic facilities.
Police called on the activists to halt the protest and unlock the doors, as “they had already managed to make their voices heard by the media.” When demonstrators refused to oblige, police briefly used a water cannon on some of the protesters. They unlocked the door and ended the protest after 20 minutes.
(nt)
