Veysel Eroglu

Racketeers are exploiting legal loopholes to grab lands on lakes and around dams that are drying due to drought and leasing them out for commercial agricultural activities, daily Milliyet has reported.

Those lands, which emerge when water levels in lakes or dams recede, are very fertile but they normally belong to the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSİ).

Veysel Eroğlu, Turkey's special envoy to Iraq, on July 11  chaired a meeting to discuss an action plan to solve water related issues in Iraq.

A Turkish delegation will visit Iraq in June to discuss cross-border water resources, with the Turkish government already having appointed a special envoy to Iraq, former Forestry and Water Affairs Minister Veysel Eroğlu.

The government is trying to take all necessary measures against a possible drought in 2018, following rainfall in 2017 that was far below the annual average, Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Veysel Eroğlu has said.

Turkey experienced the worst drought in 44 years in 2017, due to a substantial decrease in rain levels, Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Prof. Dr. Veysel Eroğlu said on Dec. 28, while sharing his ministry’s annual report at the Istanbul Lütfi Kırdar International Convention and Exhibition Center.

Forestry and Water Affairs Minister Veysel Eroğlu has said that 11,781 hectares of forest land were damaged by fires, adding that 2017 has been Turkey’s driest year in the past 44 years.

Some 4 million cubic meters of concrete are planned to be used in the construction of the Yusufeli Dam, located in the Black Sea province of Artvin, which will become Turkey's highest dam upon completion.

Gaziantep Mayor Fatma Şahin has visited a lion cub that has been taken under protection after being found abandoned in a car on Aug. 23 in the Cizre district of the southeastern province of Şırnak, naming the lion "Cesur" (Brave). 

Şahin visited the lion cub at the Gaziantep Zoo and fed him with milk through a syringe.

Turkey might suffer a drought in 2020 or 2021, as the country experiences droughts almost every seven years, Forestry and Water Affairs Minister Veysel Eroğlu said on Aug. 7.

Turkey's wildlife has been damaged by fires that erupted throughout the summer days as the cities and agricultural areas were hit by floods in more than 12 cities in just one week.